Receiving unwanted gifts can be an easy pass for some people, but what about a situation where the giver is someone very close to you, expects you to make use of the gift, and leaves you in a hard situation of discarding it? This often results in hoarding such items at home. When these gifts come in large quantities, they can quickly occupy your space and bring the added trouble of unnecessary attachment.
For me, I have faced this situation many times. I have an 'uncle,' as I fondly call him. We are not related in any way; he is a man we got to know in church, and he became really attached to me. Ever since then, I became his 'younger brother', and he gives me almost everything he has overgrown wearing, including some new stuff.
For clothes, which constitute most of the things he gifts me, I have not had much issue because I can easily take them to tailors to get them amended since he is actually bigger than me. But for shoes? Oh no! It is not that his feet are much larger than mine—no, the difference is just a little. Any shoe that fits his legs can fit into mine, but… Read on🥲
The first shoe I received was a leather shoe, exactly the type we use for corporate church outfits. However, it was just too old-fashioned, the kind that retired teachers in the 90s would wear.
The moment I saw the shoe, I immediately knew I would not be using it. The challenge arose: "If I do not use it, it might send a wrong signal to him that I do not like it." The situation was further complicated because he sees me regularly, and there was no one in the church or immediate environment I could gift it to without him finding out. This made hoarding the shoe in the limited space I have for my footwear a tough issue.
What did I do?
Well, I accepted the shoe and kept it in a faraway corner of my home. After some months of non-usage, I eventually took it home during one of my holidays and practically forced my dad to take it. Unfortunately, my dad is not really the shoe type. Nonetheless, I persuaded him to wear it whenever he wanted to dress in an outfit that required shoes.
I do not know about other people's cultures, but in my part of the world, it is offensive to boldly turn down a gift in the presence of the giver. I cannot even imagine someone doing that to me if I were the giver. This is why I gladly accept gifts and later pass them on to someone who will find them useful, provided I can do so without the giver finding out and assuming I kept the item for future use.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to #KISS writing prompt.
Photos used are mine