Valentine’s Day is known for its tendency to draw out sweet affection from people.

With people wanting to make something special out of this day for their sweethearts, situations can take a turn from being a normal day to being a special one. The outcome can be surprising.

Take, for example, Cassidy Williams, a senior in computer science.

Williams’ freshman year Valentine’s Day resulted in a wide array of unexplained gifts from a secret admirer.

“I got this weird math poem that was sent to me, and I said, ‘OK, so it has to be an engineer of some kind.’”

The series of gifts, including flowers, progressed to receiving fake email accounts at which the admirer could be contacted, but Williams was hesitant.

Eventually, she pinpointed the stranger that she said she “barely knew,” and the two ended up getting lunch together.

“I didn’t really talk [to him] too much after that because [he] just kind of disappeared,” Williams said.

Alex Van Alstyne, sophomore in management, on the other hand, has proof that sometimes on Valentine’s Day, good things can still happen.

“I snuck out of class and spent the whole day decorating [a] car… with balloons and everything, and then I wrote ‘Will you go out with me?’ on the very back of it,” he said.

What made the feat even more impressive was that Van Alstyne was new to the school.

“She came out and everyone was there,” he said.  The couple did end up dating.

Valentine’s Day is also capable of being special for couples already together.

Maggie Monson’s boyfriend, for example, went above and beyond her expectations for the day.

After she got into his car for their Valentine’s Day date and failing to find the teddy bear she had asked for, he began driving to a mystery destination.

“We got over to the mall area, and I thought we were just going to go to a restaurant there, but we pulled into the mall, and … he took me to Build-A-Bear,” said Monson, freshman in engineering.

After picking out clothes for her teddy bear, Maggie’s boyfriend took her out to dinner.

“It was really cute. … He surprised me, which is nice,” Monson said.

Valentines don’t always have to be a significant other. Sometimes, they can be friends or family.

“Every Valentine’s Day, my dad buys me a massive, singing balloon. He also gets me other gifts such as flowers or a stuffed teddy bear,” said Mary-Kate Burkert, junior in journalism and mass communications. “He has been doing this tradition as long as I can remember.”

Burkert went on to say that her father has even surprised her at her sorority house in order to not break his yearly ritual.

“This tradition has definitely set the bar for other men in my life,” Burkert said.

The reaction to a sign of affection is difficult to predict, but on Valentine’s Day, there are sure to be a wide variety of responses.