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Mimi Geller

"I love summer," junior Ashley Jallen wrote. "In the summer, there's this one time of day when you can go outside and it's really calm and quiet and it's just starting to get cold. I love that," Jallen said.

While the origins of Valentine’s Day and the sappy gifts that often follow it is difficult to trace, students and faculty at St. Paul Academy and Summit School wish to believe it is a day to declare love not just for people, but for things in their lives. Even after the chocolate has been eaten, the valentines faded and the flowers have died, love carries benefits that linger. Numerous studies have supported that love can reduce pain, lower blood pressure and improve mental health. Whether this Hallmark holiday is, in fact, an essential annual reminder of affection, or if it’s simply a holiday glittered with cards and candy, love prevails through the halls of SPA.