Gift

December 30 – Gift Prompt: Gift. This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What’s the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year? (Author: Holly Root)   


Last year (2009) myself and a friend of mine exchanged gifts over the holidays and it was great. 2010, we didn't get a chance to do that for whatever reason so I was stuck buying myself gifts which turned out not to be so bad. Just a few months earlier, though, I had the pleasure of meeting the Assistant Dean of the MBA program at Virginia Tech at a presentation my organization hosted. Before the presentation started, we got to talking and after he found out my favorite football team happened to be VT, he said he would try and get me something autographed by the team and I was shocked he would go out of his way to do this (I guess I have that effect on people). But after some (brief) consideration, he told me something that led me to think he was joking. He said he would send me an autographed mini helmet signed by none other than MIchael Vick out of his own personal collection. Shocked, I gave him my address shortly after the presentation was over, and sure enough, about a week later a small box arrived on my porch. Enclosed was  the mini helmet he promised along with a simplistic Christmas card which I still have. This was the most thoughtful (physical) gift I received last year.