Imagine you are in the South of France, on a small river boat with your significant other you’ve been with the last four years. They surprise you with an extravagant picnic spread and some high-end wine, knowing white is your preferred choice.

You both eat your picnic spread and stare at the sky on the quilted blanket they remember to bring because they just know you so well after all these years. Later, you both lie on your backs picking out the constellations for a while. It is so romantic that you turn to each other, those constellations shining in both your eyes, and your partner leans in…

Now wake up. The fantasy envisioned was just a delusion for most of us. Kudos if you can communicate your outrageous romantic fantasies with your partner — and they do them.

Valentine’s Day is stereotyped to be a day where you cherish your love with your significant other by them showing you just how much you mean to them.

For 69 percent of people in the pre-pandemic United States, Valentine’s Day meant dressing up, possibly in something pink or red, going out to dinner, and coming home. Melodramatic at its finest.

We all have expectations of what we want Valentine’s Day to look like, and I could argue that it stems from our ideals when we were younger and innocent/oblivious.

We envisioned different outcomes than the ones that have come to surpass.

Everyone wants something different. But where do those expectations come from? Our boisterous brains just can’t seem to let us be oblivious and not slightly disappointed.

Park senior Miranda LaMunyon will be spending her first Valentine’s Day with her partner this year. Her younger self “…wanted all the chocolates, the flowers, some gift or some kind of romantic picnic,” she said.

But a sad reality kicks in, and LaMunyon said, “It’s more of a corporate holiday to try to get money out of people.” Instead, she said she would rather be at home with her partner than out.

Her partner, sophomore Aiden Joseph, doesn’t think Valentine’ Day dinners are getting old because that’s how Valentine’s Day is portrayed.

Junior Dani Klein and Dalton McAlister, a couple who have been together for four years and are currently engaged, are no exception to having expectations. Even though they both have expectations, they don’t line up.

Klein would be fine staying at home. “Those moments are super needed and super special, but it doesn’t have to be going out to dinner,” she said.

On the flip side, McAlister said, “Valentine’s Day would be a good excuse to go out on a date.”

The traditional route would be to get your partner something like flowers and chocolate. In retrospect, you and your partner could also exchange practical gifts.

Joseph and LaMunyon have been in their relationship for four months. This will be their first Valentine’s Day together, which means it’s their first time giving each other gifts. Just how do their ideals line up? (Spoiler… it’s not good.)

Miranda wants everything to be “lovey-dovey,” she said, and would prefer the traditional method of gift-giving. Aiden says that in a new relationship, he would “…save my money, just to be safe,” he said.

Just how can you win?

How could you win on a holiday when everything you do could be wrong?

The dinner could be wrong and the gifts could be lackluster.

You tell yourself that you’re just happy they put in the effort, but why be content?

And don’t even get me started on anniversaries.