Giving Great Gifts

I love giving gifts. I hate receiving them.

I also really enjoy surprises (but again, for other people and not for myself). When I am able to give a gift, I get to see the look of surprise and joy on their face as they received something they were (hopefully) not expecting. Why do I enjoy this? Because I think it reveals to them that I was thinking about them on my own time, and this translates into me caring for them. It is nice to be thought about and cared for.

Why don’t I like this happening to me? I suppose I don’t want to disappoint the part trying to surprise me or give me a gift in case I don’t react in the way they expected. This can really ruin the gift giving experience. I have a slight fear of receiving gifts for this reason. More than that, I have gotten many gifts that I do not need or want, and I somehow feel as though they’ve wasted their time and money on me. I should be thankful for getting a gift though, yes? I end up not feeling this way, sadly. But this is far from a diary entry, so I digress.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking with a classmate about her experience in gift giving. I noticed that she had a fear as well when it came to gift giving. Instead, she felt fear about giving a gift that wouldn’t be received well because the person didn’t want it, or even that it was the wrong kind of thing. Gifts involving technology can often do this to people, as many hold certain allegiance to particular companies (I’m a Playstation fanboy, for example, and never want to own an Xbox if I can help it). My classmate expressed this as being part of it, as many of those close to her enjoy technology, but she doesn’t know what to get them.

I decided there is a way to resolve this. I know from experience, as this is something my brother had for Christmas time, and it made my life so much easier. My recommendation is to have those she wants to buy gifts for to make an Amazon Wish List for themselves. First all, the beauty of this is that it should be affordable. The other great fact is you can ship the item to yourself to wrap or have Amazon wrap it and sent directly to them (they’ll include a personal note at no additional charge too!). Also, since the person picked out the items that will be in their Amazon Wish List, you now know it is something they want. Is it as much a surprise? Well, sort of. Much like a wedding registry, you never know what you’re going to get, so every item is more of a pleasant surprise than a total one.

Overall, I enjoyed the process of identifying a problem that my classmate had and coming up with a solution. What I learned from all of this was that it is incredibly helpful to try to employ empathy and listen to what people are experiencing in order to identify the actual problem which should lead to an effective solution. This can only happen by spending time with people, and spending time with people is one of the greatest gifts we can give.