Feb. 14 is where lovers find their zing, or in other words, really where they find their other half. Valentine’s day is what we call it, and some might argue it is not all lovey-dovey.

    Valentine’s day is the day we show how much we appreciate someone in a serious way. We let our significant other know how we feel about them, along with the candy hearts and chocolates.

    In highschool, Valentine’s Day is quite a big deal for most students and dating is usually a factor when it comes to celebrating the affections. Dating comes with benefits and distractions yet most of the time we are unaware of these issues.

    In my experience, dating has been for the most part not distracting. I try to find a balance between hanging out with my lover and keeping up with my studies. Others feel differently.

    “I think it can be both [beneficial and distracting] because I can see how much that other person can motivate you to go to school and make it more exciting,” junior Sina Oldani said.

    Oldani is a foreign exchange student from Switzerland, and is attending Monte Vista for the year. Her experience back home is a little more sweet.   

     “We don’t have that many couples in school, but when there is a couple, it is serious and a bigger deal,” Oldani said. “In general, if you commit to someone it means something definitely lasting longer than a couple weeks.”

    On the opposite side of things, being distracted is not such a good thing.   

    “It could distract you because you’re obviously not thinking about school, just about your boyfriend or girlfriend,” Oldani said. “By dating, it limits how much homework you actually get done because you hang out with your lover.”

    Attractive? More like distractive.

    “Being in a relationship would probably take up ten hours of someone’s week because people would want to spend time with their lover during school,” junior Allyson Peters said. “It is taking time away from homework and if you do sports or extracurricular activities, it just builds up more distractions.”

    Not all relationships are meant to be, or for that matter, planned to happen at all. Peer pressure takes a toll and whether we like it or not, it still has a huge effect. If relationships are meant to happen, they will happen, but they should not happen just because your friends said it should.   

     “There is definitely peer pressure because friends push their friends to get with someone, just because they look good together or if one person likes another and that person doesn’t like them back, they feel like they need to like that person,”Peters said.

    Pick a guy, any guy. Relationships these days have changed dramatically over the past years.

    “Relationships in the sense of dating has changed because now, people just see it as a game and people get played,” Peters said.

    Time is definitely not on people’s good side and people waste it by being played or getting played.   

    “Whereas maybe about five to ten years ago, dating was something really special and it was something people wanted to be in, but now it’s more of a bigger deal in who is with who and what their doing which puts pressure on others,” Peters said.

    Dating should not be something to play around with and neither should our emotions.

    “Your companion is a person you want to have trust between, and for them that is a shoulder they can cry on or hang out with whenever and they know that their lover with always be there for them,” Peters said.

    Although true love has no ending, this dating game we play is not what Valentine’s Day is about. We should want to get to know that person we are in to and want it to last longer, and find what it is we have in common with one another.

    Love is love, no matter how much we try to play around with it.