Souvenirs of Guilt

A colleague just came back from Melaka recently, and instead of the usual snacks, she made key chains for everybody! They are little bear key chains with our names written on them. She even chose the colours according to our liking! So sweet and thoughtful right...?

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This made me feel a little embarrassed as the only souvenir that I gave her from my recent Europe trip was a cheapo magnet. Well, I guess you can’t compare it like that right, since the stupid EURO currency is like 2-3 times the amount of Ringgit. Honestly I didn't want to buy the silly magnet, but since she asked for it...

I’m always pleasantly surprised when people actually took the extra effort (and cost) to choose souvenirs for friends at home. Even if they aren’t exactly your best friends.

That usually say a lot about you… From my own evaluation, either you are:
1) Naturally a nice and generous person who gives unconditionally
2) A politically correct character trying to buy favours so that life in the office would be a much easier place to work
3) You REALLY care how and what people thinks about you and you wanna make sure that you are in other people’s good books.
4) Or… All the above….

:D

Seriously there’s nothing wrong with being one of the above. A have a friend that seriously DO NOT LIKE it when someone gives him a gift. Be it Christmas, or even his birthday, he just doesn’t like gifts!

He’s theory was that being a nice guy, he would then be obligated to return a gift, and he finds it such a chore to shop for a gift for someone! So he would rather not receive them in the first place.

I thought that was an interesting theory, so I intentionally bought him a Christmas present, much to his dismay and my delight in irritating him. Whahaha… And true enough, I got a gift from him shortly – a traveling toothbrush

O_O what the…

So anyway, I generally don’t like to buy souvenirs. I don’t mind spending more effort for birthdays and Christmas or any other special events, but when I’m on holiday, I just don’t enjoy spending my precious time and money in hunting down gifts or snacks for people back home.

I would usually face a dilemma.

If I choose to buy – I would definitely not enjoy the process. If I don’t buy, then I would have to face the people back home, looking at me expectantly, asking me rhetorical questions like “hows your trip?” before the million dollar question “So did you buy anything…?”

I used to be the type (3) person, so this would have made me really nervous.

Now – I’ll just casually throw out something like “oh no, didn’t buy ANYTHING”

Flickers of dissapointment flashes across the faces – just for a second, and life goes on. So that’s my take – just because I didn’t bring back any souvenirs doesn’t make me a bad person. But of course, I always cherish any gifts that people give me. If you have ever given me any gift, I thank you sincerely! :D