Do you have a standard graduation gift?

Having a “standard” gift for a particular type of event — graduations, baby showers, etc. — can simplify your life by taking a lot of the deep thinking out of the process.  Basically, it allows you to do your thinking once and then not have to do it over and over.

Standard can be super-specific: we’re going to give the xyz widget in medium, flame red.  Or it can be more general, to allow for personalization: we’re going to give a decorative gizmo from xyz company, in whatever theme suits the recipient.

Regardless, it ought to be something sustainable.  If your household consistently struggles to make ends meet, and you tend to have 2-6 graduates to give gifts to each year, then “we’re going to give $200 to each graduate” may not be a viable option.  Can you expect to consistently give the thing you’ve chosen, every time someone close to you graduates?  (Of course, you decide where “standard” applies, whether to everyone, only those who aren’t close family, only those who are close family, etc.)

Is it something meaningful?

With apologies to anyone who has gifted such a book (especially if you gave one to me), were you ever given one of those “now that you’re a graduate” gift books?  Did you ever actually read it?  And if you did, did you glean any amazing life wisdom from it?  I’m guessing there’s a pretty good chance you didn’t.

Frankly, those books are a little cheesy, designed to give people who don’t know what to give, something to give.  (Well, and to make money for their publishers, of course.)

Books do have something going for them — that sustainability factor.  But if you’re going to go with a book, why not choose a book that you find meaningful?  Something that changed your life (for the better, of course!) or that you believe holds a good deal of wisdom or offers particular value of some other kind (perhaps a book of favorite poetry to enrich a young person’s life)?

Books aren’t the only option, though, of course.  Is there some item you make use of all the time?  Something that you’d not want to have to live without?  Maybe you have a favorite all-in-one tool, or you really appreciate always having a dependable flashlight handy.  Maybe it’s an emergency item like a first aid kit or jumper cables.  Maybe there’s a piece of software you use all the time and find invaluable.

Or perhaps you prefer a more symbolic gift.  Something that communicates the graduate’s importance through the meaning of his name, perhaps, or an ornament or knick-knack to serve as a reminder.

The bottom line is, a gift doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, in dollars and cents, to be meaningful; it just has to be thoughtful.  Do you truly believe that the thing you’re giving will serve the recipient well as he moves into the next stage of his life?  Then you’ve chosen well.