Anthea Fisher Staff Writer Is it Valentine’s Day? No, but it sure feels like it at Latin! Note: the enthusiastic portion of this article is over, so if you’re looking for a readable rom-com then you’re out of luck and should search elsewhere. Still reading? Awesome. The senior hallway has recently begun to feel a lot like a match.com commercial that just won’t seem to end, and it appears that there’s no reason behind it. As someone whose “boyfriend” is a box of doughnuts and an illegal download of Downton Abbey season 3 (can you believe what happened with Lady Sybil in episode 5?? OMG!!!), this has been particularly irritating. By all means, have a relationship, but I’m not crazy about you snuggling with your significant other while I’m trying to eat a cookie in peace. The “couples wall” in the senior lounge just keeps growing and the amount of inter-grade couples that don’t have their own space dedicated to documenting their relationship do too, and I’ve been trying to find some kind of reason behind the sudden influx in romance. Could Quest Food Services have put something in the salad that I never eat that has caused the surge in couples in the building? Maybe, but we’ll never know because the test results were inconclusive (due to my aversion to eating leaves). Whatever it may be, I’ve been trying to figure out what’s been going on. Sure, I get that everyone’s looking for love in this horrible, entitled and expensive world we live in, but we should talk about the world as a whole and not just the school. I understand that high school is stressful and having a buddy whose face you can assault in the hallway is somewhat comforting, but why must my lonely, pastry-filled existence be exposed to this? As happy as I am for you, don’t remind me that I’ve seen every episode of 30 Rock four times and you spend your Friday nights eating dinner with someone of the opposite gender. I mean maybe I’m being whiny, but this is an opinion article and my opinion is that I don’t like PDA. So ha. Our school is incredibly academically challenging, so if you can hold down a healthy relationship and keep your grades up while not having to join a fight club to manage your stress, then congratulations and my jealousy goes out to you. But for the rest of us (not counting me, obviously, because I already mentioned that my significant other is a food item and a television show) this isn’t as easy as it sounds. Once again, I’m only speaking from what The Disney Channel taught me at age 8 and have no experience with this, but managing friendships, grades, family, sports (but who even plays them, am I right?) and a relationship on top of all that is no easy feat. So as I frown upon the open romance suddenly abound at the Latin School of Chicago, I wish all you lovebirds well, because what you’re doing is much harder than anything I’ve attempted in my years at this school and I probably will never know your struggle.]]>