Students not left behind on lovers’ day

BY Nikko Tanui

A teen of yesteryears may have given a blank stare when asked whether he or she had ever heard about Valentine’s Day. However, there is hardly a teen today that does not know what the Valentine’s Day fuss is all about.

In fact, most teens have the history of Valentine’s Day at their fingertips yet they don’t even know when the East African Community collapsed.

And although many teens in boarding school will not get a chance to meet their boyfriends or girlfriends on the material day, nothing will stop them from marking the occasion in one way or another.

For instance, one opening day I witnessed a young man unpack a pair of red underwear, which he happily disclosed he would wear only on Valentine’s Day.

However, most boarders simply retrieve a picture of their boyfriend or girlfriend and carry it in their breast pockets. Then, once in a while — even during lessons — they take out the photo and gaze at it misty eyed before kissing and uttering romantic words to it.

But it is the day scholars who really get practical on Valentine’s Day. It is common to see a boy rushing to school carrying a miserable flower plucked from the hedge around his father’s farm.

In the evening, students leave the school compounds in pairs, unlike other days when they leave in crowds.

At road junctions, it is not unusual to bump into a boy talking to a shy, pimply girl who is looking everywhere else but at him while drawing mysterious figures on the dusty ground using her big toe.