Lets say that one year you decided that you were going to get a gift for yourself, you had a budget of fifty dollars, and a date set that you had to have it for. For arguments sake let's say Christmas, 'tis the season after all.
What would get yourself? We have all had to get gifts for somebody else, when it comes down to crunch time and you are getting closer to the date and you haven't figured out what to get yet, I know that I have personally just grabbed something off the shelf, putting aside indecision, and hoping that the person I was buying for would like it.
This year my family did something different, we usually draw names from a hat, and have to buy something for the person's name that we picked. This year we had to do the same thing but instead of buying a gift for them, we had to buy something for ourselves and say it was from them.
Sounds silly right? How many times have you gotten something that you will never use? The person that got you the gift just threw 50 dollars away, and so did you on their gift. So why not spend the money on yourself and get something that you and everyone else will use. Keep in mind that we are all older adults and don't have a real need for anything. Children still get gifts.
You would think this would be an easy process, I have found it to be much harder than anticipated. First of all, the whole "Just buy something and hope for the best" scenario gets thrown out the window. I know what it is and it's for myself, I'm not going to throw money away. I have had a hell of a time trying to buy for myself. It was at this point when I realized that I truly had no need for a gift that costs 50 dollars. Having a deadline made the situation even more complicated and panic set in because I was in town and sick of shopping, I had to get something. I did, but I'm not very impressed with myself at all, I would even go as far as saying I let myself down.
I can't tell you what it is, Christmas isn't here quite yet and I can't let my secret Santa know what she bought me until then.
Scott Goerz
