Imagine you’re a character in a romantic comedy. Music plays in the background of all your emotional moments, grand gestures are commonplace and crushes are more than just crushes – since the story arc ensures that your crush will like you back when you finally share your feelings. You have no trepidation or hesitations.
If the world functioned like a romantic comedy, how would you live out Valentine’s day? What would you say to or do for your crush to express your infatuation? What would you hope your crush would do for you? In an alternate universe where there are no consequences for expressing your subdued passion for someone, anything can happen.
NBN challenged the status quo by asking students to anonymously share what they would do for or say to their crush this V-Day. Many people struggled with their responses, as the mere idea of talking about feelings for a crush can be inconceivable. But maybe in order to live our lives to the fullest, we should sometimes pretend we’re living in a movie where life’s social constructs do not apply. Just how much magical thinking is too much magical thinking...
“I’ve never talked to a boy, so I don’t really have an answer.”
“I don’t really know– I’m out of the dating game.”
“‘Do you wanna do something later?’”
“I would want my crush to invite me on a romantic date. I want flowers since I really like flowers, and no one ever gets me flowers.”
“I’d want to go to the beach with my crush with a live band playing.”
“‘Let’s be together and run away.’”
“I would want him to sneak into my room and leave chocolates and flowers. My friend’s boyfriend did that for her right when they started dating.”
“At this point in our lives, just getting flowers from my crush would be special.”
“I would want a puppy from my crush.”
“I’d probably go surprise them with something and go on a walk with them. Nothing gaudy or tacky. Tell them how I feel”
“I would write him a really nice letter. Saying I don’t celebrate this day normally, but I’m excited to have you in my life and see where things go. Maybe I’d get him a cookie too.”
(Update: Asking this question prompted this person to text their crush to get lunch sometime this week!)
“I would bring my crush to an arcade. We played air hockey once together, so I feel like it would be a cute way of saying ‘I’m into you.’”
“I would slyly put a card next to their plate when we went to the dining hall for a meal that day.”
“Did you see that horse and carriage that was going around campus? Cause that’s what I would do with my crush on Valentine’s Day.”
“There’s this person who never smiles, so I would bring out a clown or something to try and make her laugh. I would give her a rose after she smiled and compliment her smile. That would be pretty cool to get her to smile.”
“Uhh… I don’t know… throw pebbles at their window?”
“I would want my crush to invite me to ZBT boat date for next November.”
“I would have fireworks that spelled out the person's name and ‘I like you.’”
“I would take her to a Bull’s game and get put on the kissing cam.”
“I would bribe the workers in the Sears Tower to spell out her name in the windows. We would eat at Trattoria Gianni.”
“I would take her to the rocks by Monroe Beach.”
“I love making cards. So, I would make a handmade card.”
“I would like to be serenaded. I’ve always wanted to be. I want it to be a version of a Hannah Montana song, but being sang with anything relevant to her being replaced with something about me. I want many people there. It’s all about the attention.”
“Please fall in love with me.”
"Oh, I wish you were mine. Be mine?"
“Take your shirt off again. See you sometime soon ...😉”
“Tbh, still not over you.”
“Ask me out, coward.”
“Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love you, Please love me too.”
“Thanks for putting up with how much I eat all the time, luv you.”
“Hi. Please notice me because I love you xoxo.”
“Can you just slide into my DMs already?”
“Roses are red, violets are blue. I hate pickles, but I like you”
So there we have it– NU students want flowers, serenades and puppies this Valentine's Day! Xoxo from NBN!