Over Valentine’s Day weekend from Saturday Feb. 13–Sunday Feb. 14, temperatures reached a brutal -11 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite nature casting an icy chill over campus, Geneseo Late Knight’s “Love Bites” event was more than able to provide enough love-themed gifts and goodies to warm up any frostbitten heart.
Held on Saturday Feb. 13 in the MacVittie College Union Lobby, “Love Bites” featured delicious hot chocolate, pink and red frosted cupcakes—which could be mistaken as a bed of roses from far away—and a wide variety of candies for its participants.
At the front desk, students were given wooden hearts that could be decorated with an assortment of colorful paints, heart-shaped gems and small mosaic tiles. Some students made these wooden Valentines for their partners, but the majority of the crafters made them for friends or themselves.
Freshman Dimitri Wing-Paul explained that despite social constructs, singles should still be able to go out and have just as much fun on Valentine’s Day. “I feel like people put so much emphasis on having a Valentine; just because you don’t have a Valentine doesn’t mean you are lonely or should feel that you should have a Valentine,” he said.
Wing-Paul was one of the individuals who decided to make a decorated heart for himself. “I’m [making this] for myself because we have to take a moment and really celebrate loving ourselves first before we love others,” he said.
GLK also had a cup designing station where students could go and create their own unique design which could then be printed on a cup. By far, the cup station was the most popular attraction at the event—the line to participate extended from under the second floor staircase to the stairs on the other side of the lobby. Members of GLK attempted to make the wait more manageable by scaling the lines with jars filled with candies.
The designs ranged from inspirational quotes to personal shout outs. For instance, junior Dyamond Slater had lyrics from her favorite song “Hey Angel” by One Direction printed onto her own cup. Some students made these cups as gifts for parents, emblazoning their cups with sweet words like, “I love you, Mom.” Most cups, however, seemed to be made for the creator’s own personal enjoyment.
In the end, GLK’s “Love Bites” event was a success for being open to all students—whether or not they were celebrating Valentine’s Day with a partner, friends or alone.
“You have to celebrate yourself,” Wing-Paul said. “You deserve to be celebrated and you deserve to be loved, so you deserve to love yourself.”