Will You Be My Valentine?

By Betty Liu

情人节可不只是商业营销宣传造势下的狂欢盛宴，本文作者为我们展开一段段真挚温馨的回忆：读小学的时候，情人节无关于情人，而是对友谊表达真挚的谢意，与朋友们一起分享糖果，交换祝福卡片；而从中学开始，情人节不知怎的就变成了情侣间秀恩爱的专属节日；而现在，她很高兴情人节又回到友谊的主调上。

Like many Americans, I will say that I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. On one hand, it can be pretty awful to be slammed with images of “love” all day, and see couples fawning over each other, oblivious to the world.1. 一方面，一整天放眼望去是各种情情爱爱的场面，到处是情侣们全然不顾四周忘情地卿卿我我，相当讨厌。slam: 砰地关上（门或窗），猛烈抨击，使劲一推；fawn: 奉承，讨好；oblivious: 不注意的，忘却的。But on the other hand, it’s a day where you receive free candy and spend time with friends. Now, who doesn’t like that?

I remember in elementary school, teachers would use any holiday as an excuse to have a classroom celebration. From holidays ranging from Columbus Day2. Columbus Day: 哥伦布节，即哥伦布发现美洲纪念日——10月12日。to Christmas, we would always get at least half a day off to enjoy the holidays.Valentine’s Day was no exception, and usually the day was dedicated to enjoying sweets and exchanging Valentine’s Day cards with friends.3.情人节也不例外，在这一天我们与朋友一起分享糖果，相互交换情人节卡片。It seemed that every year from kindergarten all the way to at least 4th grade, our teachers would always lead us in decorating a box to hold Valentine’s Day cards. Then,on Valentine’s Day we would go around and put a card into everyone’s box. I still have fond memories4. fond memory: 美好的回忆，温馨的回忆。of this. I remember the foil cards with different cartoon characters on it and boxes of colorful candy hearts that I always received—I also remembered that they tasted awful, but it was the thought that counted.5. 我还记得那些画有卡通人物的锡箔纸卡片，还有我总会收到的那些装满五颜六色心形糖果的盒子——我还记得那些糖果并不好吃，但重要的是心意。foil: 锡箔；count:有重要性，有影响。And, every year there would also be a little bit of drama6. drama: 戏剧，戏剧效果，戏剧性的事件。that accompanied this holiday. Someone might get an anonymous card, and the girls will all shriek and giggle as they go around trying to find the culprit.7.有些人会收到匿名卡片，女孩子们会大声尖叫，咯咯笑着到处找寻送出卡片的人。anonymous: 匿名的，没有署名的；shriek: 大声尖叫；giggle: 咯咯地笑，傻笑；culprit: 当事人，引起情况的事物或人。I remember one year I found an unsigned, homemade card in my box, and I was absolutely delighted. I put it in my pocket and snuck furtive glances at it for the rest of the day.8.我把它放到口袋里，在接下来一天的时间里时不时就会偷偷瞄上一眼。sneak:（过去式和过去分词为snuck）偷偷溜走，偷偷进式；furtive: 秘密的，偷偷摸摸的；glance: 一瞥，扫视。

As we grew older, Valentine’s Day seemed to move further away from celebrating the innocent friendship of childhood.Starting in middle school, suddenly we had to worry about dating, and relationships, and a whole bunch of other things that I never really wanted to think about.9. a bunch of: 一群，一堆。Instead of friends exchanging cards and candy, it became couples acting sickeningly romantic.10. 不再是朋友间交换卡片和糖果，而变成情侣们之间表演令人反感的浪漫。sickeningly:令人作呕地，令人反感地。Couples found any excuse to express their affection, you couldn’t walk anywhere without seeing heart-shaped everything, and just by walking in the halls you were likely to be accidentally smacked with an oversized bouquet or stuffed animal.11. 情侣们找各种理由表达爱意，到处都可以看到心形的东西，走在大厅里你都非常有可能突然撞上巨型花束或毛绒动物。smack: 猛击，重撞；bouquet: 花束；stuffed animal: 填充动物玩具。For this reason, no one really liked Valentine’s Day in middle school, except those who found themselves in a “relationship” (I use this term lightly, because I have a hard time taking middle school relationships seriously.)12. 正因为如此，中学里几乎没有人真的喜欢情人节，除了那些处于“恋爱”中的人（在这里用“恋爱”这个词比较草率，因为我很难把中学生的感情看作真正的恋爱）。Middle school was when the cynical13. cynical: 愤世嫉俗的，讥讽的。attitude towards Valentine’s Day appeared. My classmates liked to denounce it as a “Hallmark Holiday,”saying that the only purpose of its existence was to turn a profit for the corporations of our world.14. 我的同学指责情人节就是“商标节”，并说这个节日存在的唯一目标就是为全世界的商业企业带来利润。denounce:公开指责，正式指控，通告废除；hallmark:（任何商品上的）纯正优质证明标志，这里指代商品。

After getting over the awkward phase in middle school, Valentine’s Day started to shift back to what it used to be: a celebration of friendship, not just “romantic love”.15. 过了中学这个令人尴尬的阶段，情人节开始恢复它原本的样子：庆祝友谊，而不仅仅是爱情。awkward: 尴尬的。Friends started exchanging gifts again without romantic undertones16. undertone: 潜在的感情，暗示的含义。, people started celebrating with friends, and at least for me, it became much more enjoyable. I like to think that this shift in attitudes came about because we matured17. mature: v. 成熟起来，成长。a bit. We were able to see that some things,such as relationships, really weren’t that big of a deal. Personally18. personally: 就个人而言。, I find Valentine’s Day to be a fun holiday. Last year we did a chocolate exchange, and it was nice to go back to the old days of enjoying sweets with friends.

我的名字叫Betty，我生活在美国一个叫做希尔瓦(Sylva)的小镇。我喜欢读书（《哈利·波特》系列是我的最爱）、写作和演奏乐器。 我是学校乐队的成员，负责演奏木琴和鼓，偶尔还弹键盘钢琴。我还热爱科学，尤其喜欢学习生物学。我的博客地址是http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2671967925。欢迎大家和我一起交流和学习。