“Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger. Pages 100-125.

Summary:

Ann disliked Valentine’s Day because she was plain – not ugly, but not beautiful. In Valentine’s Day, she overlooked the fact that her cards were not oversized like those of the popular girls, and did not contain the love notes like those of the pretty girls. But later, in middle school, Valentine’s Day is only for the pretty and the popular girl, not for Ann. At such a time, stories of ugly ducklings that will one day turn into beautiful swans do not assuage the hurt and rejection. In Subsequent years Ann became pretty and turned many a boy’s head, even years later, grown and with a family of her own.
Today, Ann’s family includes two boys in middle school. For a dollar, their Student Council will deliver a Valentine’s Day carnation. Ann gives a dollar to each of her children to buy flowers for their girlfriend. Then she adds another dollar apiece with this instruction: “Pick another girl, one who is nice, but plain – someone who probably won’t get a flower. Send her a flower anonymously. That way she will know that someone cares, and she will feel special.”

Opinion:

I like this story so much because she does not forget those long-ago days of rejection and dejection. She really knows that how pain it was so she wants her children to give a flower to a girl who will not get a flower. She doesn’t want someone who will be her, too. Actually, Valentine’s Day is not only hurt some girls, even some boys. Just because they don’t look handsome, no girls will girl them chocolate, even they are really nice and kind. That is nobody cares. They only care what they look like. By the way, give a flower to a boy or girl who will not get a flower. That way she will know that someone care, and he/she will feel special.