I find it difficult to buy people presents because I myself don't care much to receive presents. The present that means the most to me is food. This sounds like a joke, but I am in fact serious. When people are selfless enough to buy me food with their own money, or to take the time to prepare something for me, I feel as though they've really given of themselves. I rarely spend money on myself, and when it comes to food I rarely spend money at all: I'll always mooch off of my parents or the school cafeteria rather than spend indulgently. And because of this, when I buy myself food I hate to share and seldom do. So when people spend indulgently on me, I feel as though they're really going out on a limb for me: whether it's breakfast on a Sunday, a dove ice cream bar, a butterfly cookie or a shared lunch. The people I work with have caused me to be a much more giving person because they have given so much to me in this way. So apart from making people food, I don't know what to get them. But a commercial came on with the sentiment:
"Buy someone a present they would buy themselves."
I found this quite helpful. I tend to think: "what would I want or like?" But the real question is, "What would this person want for themselves?" This has greatly helped me in my quest to correctly execute gift giving during birthdays, holidays, and other gift giving appropriate times.
6/7/11
No comments:
Post a Comment