Valentine’s Day is an annual holiday to celebrate love, admiration, and friendship. Every year, on February 14, millions of people express their admiration and appreciation for someone, whether a special someone or simply a close friend. Some people send extravagant gifts along with cute pop-up cards, while some prefer to ignore the day entirely. But let’s be completely honest here: how many of you are actually exchanging handwritten notes?

I’m not blaming you as I’m the last person who would prefer handwriting over typing. It’s not a secret that my handwriting is an atrocious combination of lazy cursive and illegible hieroglyphics. However, it didn’t start out that way; I suppose it worsened over time, especially when I hand-wrote my 400-page novels in elementary and middle school. As my ideas overflowed my mind, my writing just couldn’t keep up with my thoughts. Therefore, I’m not completely against typing out meaningful words instead of handwriting them for Valentine’s Day. There are definitely perks, such as efficiency and readability when typing out a letter. I digress, though — let’s return to the present. Let’s say you’ve handwritten a card for someone you admire. The card took ten minutes to write while texting or typing would have taken less than one. You put unnecessary effort worrying about the card being illegible in some parts, while texting wouldn’t have had that problem in the first place. You may have even ended an innocent tree’s life by writing on paper. Despite these grievances, you still wrote the letter. And that’s what counts.

Handwritten notes do not purely serve to waste one’s time nor for the recipient to remark about the low-quality handwriting. A handwritten note with words of kindness can be cherished for years to come, holding much sentimental value. The thought of someone you care about sitting down and focusing on writing a meaningful letter for you is something you’ll never forget about. A particular reason for this is because handwriting a note indicates special intention. The Stanford Daily phrases this concept perfectly: “Every alphabetic character requires a myriad of microdecisions — will I loop my ‘y’s, will I sharpen my ‘q’s? […] Unlike the typed word, a written script deeply exposes our thoughts — our naked, raw selves.” Physically writing a note to someone takes time and energy. The process of having to choose a physical card from a store, jotting down the message, and personally handing it to the recipient takes extra time out of our lives. The modern-day is full of unexpected turns and busy schedules, but taking the time to write a note to someone you care about is more personal than an email or text.

Unfortunately, handwritten notes are synonymously called “a lost craft” these days. With the introduction of digital devices, in-person communication has been at an all-time low. After all, why would you bother to go out to talk to someone when you can stay home, texting that particular someone from the comfort of your bed or couch? From randomly chosen individuals 18 to 44 years old, 63% of survey respondents indicated that texting during Valentine’s Day was better than handwritten cards, according to SlickText. The most popular communication method was a phone call with text messaging coming to a close second. Survey respondents didn’t even consider handwritten notes.

Handwritten notes are a lost art because we fail to think about the importance of putting in the extra ounce of effort and the extra frame of time to sit down and intentionally show a special someone your admiration for them through a letter. . But just this Valentine’s Day — during this one special day — it may be a thoughtful act to write a note of appreciation to those you admire. After school, during lunch, or during an IDT, I highly suggest you go to the local grocery store, pick out a nice card (possibly with a funny Valentine’s Day pun), and let your thoughts flow with a pen or pencil in your hand. Today’s the day to make an old habit new again.