Recently I read this article called "As A Young Woman, I Should Never Have To Pay On Valentine's Day Or Any Day For That Matter," and I was appalled by what they had to say about it. If you have not read it, let me summarize it for you.

In this article, they mentioned how they believe that their boyfriend should be paying for everything and their reasoning behind it was because they were not making as much money as their boyfriend. What makes it worse is that they mention that Valentine's Day is their boyfriend's opportunity to show her how much he loves and appreciates her. Let me also mention that they believe that a man should be able to take care of her.

I know I'm not entitled to his money, but I was raised to be taken care of, and that a man's role in my life is to take care of me, and that is why I am majoring in M.R.S. and not some STEM field where I could easily find a job and support myself.

Now you have a glimpse of what I am talking about, you must be feeling what I am feeling, which is seeing how stupid this is. As a woman, I believe that we are in a generation where a relationship goes both ways. I believe that whether it is Valentine's Day or any other day, both partners should put the same effort into everything they do for each other, no matter if it is a holiday or not.

Even if it is Valentine's Day, it is a two-person holiday. Therefore, he should be spoiled as much as me.

We both put the same amount of effort into our relationship, so why would it be wrong if I decide to pay for a change?

I am special to my boyfriend as he is special to me and I want him to know that.

He should not have to buy my love to be with him. I am with him because he is my person.

My boyfriend and I have been together for almost three years now. Yes, he has a job while he is a full-time student and I do not, I am just a full-time student. But just because he has money does not mean anything. Yes, we do go out a lot on dates, but that does not matter to me. I never ask him to get me anything or to buy me anything. What matters is the amount of love and happiness I have with being around him. We could just be watching cuddling or even watching a series on Netflix, and I would absolutely love every second of it. I enjoy the small things in our relationship and cherish every moment of it. Money does not buy love or happiness.

I was raised to take care of myself and that it's not a man's role in life.

I am not entitled to my boyfriend's money and never will be. I grew up knowing that I am an independent person and that I can take care of myself. I am majoring not within the STEM field, but however, I am majoring in the Education field. I know I will not be making as much as anyone in the STEM field, but I still know that I can make it on my own and support myself.

I will never demand my boyfriend to support me. Both of us were raised to depend on ourselves, whether we are in a relationship or not. I am not saying that it is not okay to support each other by splitting bills and all of that. What I am saying is that it is not okay to depend on one person for everything. My boyfriend and I both provide financial support and emotion support to each other. We do that because that is part of us being together. These things should be done by both partners, not just your boyfriend. Just because he is a man does not mean that they have to provide us with everything.

I can do the same thing that a man does. I can pay for our dates, make plans with him, text him first, and pick what we are going to do together when we see each other.

I know this is not "normal" for most of us to do because we are all raised differently.

But it is 2019, and as a woman, we can show our love and appreciation to our boyfriend. If he is spoiling us so well, we should be doing the same thing.

I believe that both of us are capable of filling in roles other than the ones we have been defined by generations before us.

Why should we each have roles that we have to fill when we both can be capable of doing them? We should not have expectations for men and women and what they can and cannot do.