Gifting

I don’t get many gifts. I usually actively deter them, but I’ve noticed that the genuine nature of gift giving touches me in a deep way. These are some of nicest gifts I’ve received:

Three years ago, my best friend in college baked me a chocolate mousse cake for my birthday, during finals week. The gift wasn’t the cake itself, but the hours of stress baking she dedicated to my happiness.
Two and a half years ago, a day after my dad died, my calmest, kindest friend Carrie gave me an hour of support and silence when I asked her to sit with me, because I wanted to meditate on my dad’s passing but didn’t have the strength to do it alone.
The entire semester after that, friends in 3 separate classes consistently gave me bucketloads of their time, and sometimes just sent me their homework (mostly coding assignments, then), whenever I asked for help.
A little over a year ago, my now-boyfriend sent by mail a pot of fluffy yellow flowers in a short yellow smiley vase to my desk at Google, just because I’d mentioned work was stressing me out. A picture of it has lived on the lock/home screen of my phone, since.
Not long after I joined Medium, Joe saw RoboCop on my desk and decided he’d get him a friend. A few days later, ED-209 graced my desk. This week, Marcin gave me a baby ED-209. Seeing the growing little family on my desk always makes me smile. I love symbols.
On my birthday this year, Jean got me flowers. Big yellow lilies. I still don’t know what I did to deserve that. I do know that she unknowingly bought my loyalty by giving me spontaneous flowers before we even really knew each other.
On Monday morning this week, Dan ran out to Bestbuy and bought me a nice thing, because I needed it for development and he knew how much it sucked to not be able to see the thing you built. He’s getting reimbursed, I hope (thanks Medium!), but I consider the gift to me to be his genuine rush of give-a-shit.

What gifts have you received?