What makes a good graduation gift? From several (semi) recent graduates perspectives
Hello, World! This blog is a mini-takeover brought to you by the very graduate mentioned by my brilliant mum around a year ago in a very teary blog post that she wrote when both me and my sister were graduating in 2022. In this post (which I highly encourage you to read, if you have not already done so), she suggested some beautiful pieces tailored to different types of graduates, from the traveller to the undecided.
However, what I found most shocking is that the only thing that is missing from this post was what she decided to gift herself, to her own two graduates. Because, let me tell you, her gift was so thoughtful that I’ve told people what I got for graduation and they’ve literally been reduced to tears and she never told you readers why, or how, she got it so right. My mum, Militza Ortiz, is a jewellery designer / maker, super talented and has been making jewellery for over 20 years, let me drop that in here as a little hint.
So when my mum asked me if I would write her an updated blog post on graduation gifts, I thought I’d write about just that - what makes a good graduation gift. Of course, after staring at a blank page for three hours, I got distracted, went on my phone and started asking my friends ‘for inspiration’.
This, of course, is the result.
A good graduation gift is…something you’ll use everyday
I asked my current flatmate, Laura, a university graduate, what she got for graduation and she held up her wrist, to show me something that she interacts with everyday.
“I think it started off as a joke between me and my brother. We rallied together and asked my parents, ‘go on then, what are we getting for graduation?’ to which they replied, ‘err…I think you’ll find that your degree is your graduation gift’.
But then they slowly warmed to the idea of giving us both Apple Watches, because we’re all quite sporty in my family, so they liked the idea that we could all follow each other and see what everyone is getting up to.”
A thoughtful graduation gift for a sporty graduate to use on a daily basis: Apple Watch. Photo credit: Olena Bohovy from Pexels
I live with Laura and Siri is a daily presence in both of our lives. A day does not go by in which I do not hear ‘Siri, please can you set a timer’, ‘Siri, what’s the weather like?’, and most of all, ‘Siri, can you ping my phone please’.
Laura is one of the only people I know who says please and thank you to her voice driven virtual assistant, and whilst I think it would be a stretch here to draw a connection between her kindness towards Siri and the fact she received this as a graduation present, I will say that the bond between Siri and Laura lives strong and this was a gift that was particularly well suited.
A good graduation gift is…a reminder of a special place and good times had
Sara, my flatmate while I was living at University of St. Andrew’s was actually the first person I thought about asking when I came up with the idea for this blog, as she received one of the most unique gifts I’ve ever come across.
“‘I was walking past this gallery when I saw this painting of St Andrews, my university town, and I immediately fell in love with it. Now it hangs in my living room so everyday I see it and I’m reminded of all the happy moments I spent there.’ ”
Sara was the kind of person who always forced you to go on a walk, even in the dead of winter, just because she was so in love with the place she was studying.
She never took it for granted and her camera roll is FILLED with pictures of the town from various vantage points. Her favourite viewpoint though was undoubtedly this one, captured so beautifully by a local artist.
Most importantly though for Sara, this painting captured her personal connection with the town as the place where she met some of her closest friends, her boyfriend and was given the opportunity to learn and grow into the person she is today.
Beautiful oil painting of St. Andrews by local artist Linda Baton.
A good graduation gift is…about wearing your family name with pride
For Gabriele, it’s always bothered him that he didn’t have the same surname as the rest of his family. Due to personal circumstances, he was registered under the name of his biological father, rather than the one that raised him. This has never sat well with him, given everything that his family has done to get him to where he is now.
So, when he graduated, all he wanted was ‘for the name to be right on the certificate’. His family worked with lawyers for weeks and even took the case to court and eventually he was able to amend his name.
“Of course, this was a gift for me, but also I think it means a lot for my parents because, by graduating with the right name, in a sense I’m officially acknowledging the role that they had in ensuring that I had a good education, and everything they gave up to help me succeed.
”
A good graduation gift…reminds you of how far you’ve come
Now for the bit you’ve all been waiting for, what did Militza give her own two daughters? Wouldn’t you like to know. My mum was going through our old jewellery when she found two tiny, baby sized 18 carat gold bangle bracelets that were given to us when we were baptised when she came up with the idea to remodel each bangle into a pair of hoop earrings.
She redesigned our gold bangles, by recycling the gold and splitting each one in two and personalised each pair to each one of us.
Mine were slightly smaller as I was about to start work and needed something appropriate for the office, whereas my sister’s ones are bigger as she tends to wear more statement jewellery
For me, my “baby bangle hoops”, as I’ve come to call them, are a physical reminder of how much I’ve grown (literally) and what it’s taken for me to get here.
When you get caught up in your day to day, it’s very easy to lose sight of your achievements. But when I wear these earrings I’m reminded to have a little perspective, and think about the way my mum must see me, the multiple mes, going through every phase of life - from baby to graduate.
What’s so special about graduation presents?
Something I didn’t realise about graduation until after it had happened, is that it really isn’t about you (the graduate), at all. I mean, in some ways it is: it’s your name that’s on the certificate, you’re the one who has to walk across a stage and pray to God you’re not going to fall over and, seemingly, everyone is there to celebrate you and your achievements.
But when I went to my sister’s graduation, at the University of Leeds, as a spectator, I realised that, actually, graduation is for those around you.
It’s a moment for your close friends and family to be proud of you, and through that, to be proud of themselves for getting you there. It’s for all the sacrifices that they’ve made. All the stressed phone calls where you’re crying and claiming that you just can’t do it anymore. All the DRIVING, so much DRIVING, up and down the country, to move you out of one horrible student house to another one, from school to swim practice to what’s-their-name’s house to finish a school project. It’s for reading 10,000 words on a very niche protein that no one has ever heard of, just so you can look them in the eye and tell them their dissertation was ‘incredibly well-written’.
It’s about all the highs and lows that you’ve been through together.
In the same way, when I asked my friends to tell me what was special about their own graduation gifts, I was met with beautiful stories of gifts that connected them to their givers. Gifts that were more than just gifts but symbols of love and joy and pride. I think this is what makes graduation gifts so special, the fact that they’re a celebration not just of the graduate and their accomplishments but of the relationship that you have with them, and the journey you’ve both taken to get there.
So, here’s to the class of 2023! Cheers to you!
