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Gift Exchange


I think it’s called something like a “White Elephant Gift Exchange.” It usually happens during an office Christmas party or some kind of pre-Christmas social gathering. Just like Monopoly, the rules vary with the house, but the gist is everyone shows up with a gift and then gets the opportunity to exchange it for another gift when it’s their “turn.” However, even after you’ve chosen a new gift, someone going after you can then exchange their gift for yours, and then you have another opportunity to trade away that gift for a new one. This process continues until everyone has taken their “turn,” all the cookies have been eaten, and all the guests are disappointed because inevitably, no one ends up with an ideal gift and will likely just store it until next Christmas when they can try to pawn it off at the following year’s White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Because you don’t really know what gift you’ll end up with until the end, the tendency is to be always on the lookout for the “next” gift, the one you will go after if you have to give up the present you’re currently holding. Everyone is always eyeing their neighbor’s prize. And the only way you won’t have to give up your current gift is if it’s so terrible, no one else in their right mind will trade for your pickled pig’s feet or hand-woven reindeer sweater from Hades. This is probably why alcohol is often involved in this game, so people holding terrible gifts still have a chance to be relieved of them.

Unfortunately, we can also hold a similar perspective in life. Rather than enjoying and fully utilizing the gifts we’ve been granted, we look at the people around us and imagine ourselves with their gifts. We don’t fully appreciate or exercise the unique talents we have because we are too preoccupied with the abilities of our neighbors.

You will never fully realize or appreciate your unique gifts while wishing you could trade it in for someone else’s talents. Life is (thankfully) not a White Elephant Gift exchange. Embrace the gifts with which you’ve been entrusted.

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