Plain Hannah Jane: Happy Valentine's Day

As a young girl I remember LOVING Valentine's Day. We would get to decorate shoe boxes for school to hold our valentine's in and it was such a special treat. I remember one year when I was in 1st grade my classroom had a contest for the most creative valentine box. Well as luck would have it, my babysitters hobby was art and she was so creative and helped me build this huge castle to hold all of my valentine's in. Needless to say I won the contest and it made my Valentine's day so memorable. My sisters and I would spend the whole night before Valentine's Day putting together our valentine's and making sure we didn't give certain boys ones that might suggest that we liked them. Each year my mom would volunteer to be our "room mom" for our classrooms. Considering there are four of us, there were some years that this task I'm sure was pretty overwhelming for her. To this day my mom never ceases to amaze me. She would stay up til 2 or 3 in the morning baking dozens of cupcakes and decorating them and then proceed to deliver all of them at each of our classroom parties. I'm sure it wasn't easy and I appreciate her so much for it. My lifelong "Valentine" is of course my dad, he is the one man I know I can always count on. My parents always made Valentine's Day so special and I hope to one day continue that with my own family.

Now fast forwarding...

Here it is, year 2011 and another Valentine's Day has yet again come and gone. I didn't decorate a shoe box but instead I spent my day studying and working, however I did get to have a nice dinner with two special friends, Lindsey and Sterritt. We spent most of our dinner talking about life and what we think our futures may be like. Hopefully I won't be spending too many more Valentine's Days single. I didn't mind not having a special "Valentine" this year though. Of course it's fun to celebrate it with someone you care about but really to me it's a holiday that is all for show. Florists and chocolate company's live for this holiday. But if you truly care about someone you should show them your love everyday not just one day of the year where it is expected.

All day I read statuses on facebook and quotes on twitter. There were a few quotes however that stuck out to me that I read on twitter. One of my favorite people that I follow is "TheSingleWoman" who is a 32 year old single lady who lives in Nashville, TN and she has some fabulous words of wisdom about the beauty of being a woman. She is an inspiration to all women and encourages us to love and respect ourselves even with all of our imperfections. Here are a few of my favorites from the past couple of days:

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.

Sexy is a woman who knows herself, loves herself, accepts herself..just the way she is.

Trust that you are right where you need to be..& that your life is unfolding just as it should.

Another one I love to follow is "SororityGirlProblems" and here is a favorite of mine from Valentine's Day:

There is nothing like Valentine's Day to make you remember how much you really, truly, honestly need your girlfriends in your life.

I LOVE that one because it is so true. Men come and go but your girlfriends will always be there. In a year from now I'm not sure exactly how I'll be spending my Valentine's Day but I do know that if I don't have a special someone, I sure do have some special girlfriends I can celebrate it with!!