Graduation Gift Ideas

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Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 2:59 am

This is making me feel old. I knew this was coming, but I just got a high school graduation announcement for one of the various kiddywinks I've taught over the years in Sunday School. She's an incredibly good kid, the sort you hope you actually have some day, responsible, studious, offered to help you neaten up after class without being prompted at all, respectful, funny, intelligent, always has a smile, works a job and still manages to take college level calculus, among other college and high school classes, thinks she wants to be a cardiologist perhaps... yeah, that sort.

So, I'm soliciting fun ideas for a high school graduation gift for a teenage girl. One that's going to the same university I attended this fall. I somewhat dimly remember being a teenage girl, but I haven't been one in eleven years and I wasn't a very typical one even then, so I thought perhaps they've changed somewhat. Some of you people who have recently been to college/university, anything small and fun and perhaps gadgety/organizational you wish someone had gifted you with prior to setting off on your academic quest?

I'll probably write her a nice card/letter (One of the nicest graduation gifts I received was not another dustcatcher or even money, it was the card an older lady at church took the time to fill in with the nicest personal note about how appreciated I was.), but I would like at least one personal, handy gift to include, even if it 's just something small and silly, like a pack of Einstein Gluons, Ninja/Pirate folders, and a Crayola pen from ThinkGeek. (I think she's well aware that I have a weird sense of humor by now.) Cash is nice, it's always the right size, and I'll probably give her a bit of dosh along with the something small.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:08 am

Mustard Seed! Cool

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:32 am

This is a tough one. I'm sort of surprised that you would suggest hardware Mrs. Bean.

If it were a guy, I would suggest software - a bathrobe. Something in a Reprob8 tartan would be an easy buy. The males that I have given a bathrobe to have thanked me years later.

I remember the gold pens and all the cramps that they caused. What a crap gift idea.

If its going to be hardware, I would suggest a clock radio. A nice one will last decades.

A cool gift for an gifted lady may be a journal.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:57 am

@Connie - I was gonna say journal too.

Years ago, I was given a journal, it was personalised for me and very beautiful. I wrote in it every day and now, I get a new one each year.

It's so nice sometimes to be able to read back to certain years and see how I was thinking/feeling/doing, and I always remember the wonderful lady who started me on my road to writing.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 6:36 am

A nice personal organiser (Filofax) with a personalised note from you in the front?

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 1:08 pm

Sounds like you've already given her the equipment she needs to be a success Mrs B.
If you want to give her something she can remember you by. Just tell her she's the sort of student that makes your job worthwhile. Wink

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:57 pm

mrsbean wrote:

... a high school graduation announcement for one ... I've taught ... in Sunday School. ...

Easy.

Give her a Spring Break Gift Certificate:

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 8:14 pm

Give her your lottery winnings? Laughing

Seriously, I don't have any of the pen/pencil sets that I got at my various granduations any more. I don't know what I would give to a grad these days.... Sorry I can't help more.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:54 am

I would suggest a mug or something like that. My parents gave me one after I graduated from high school. I might also suggest a keychain or something like that. My neighbours gave me one with my name engraved on it...

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 2:16 am

Mustard Seed! Cool

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 5:05 am

@mrsbean. My aunt gave me a pair of simple earrings for high school graduation. I still have them and I am reminded of her every time I wear them.
If you have any pictures of her, put them in a scrap book and write your memories or thoughts about the time or events. Perhaps you can get some pictures from some of her friends if you do not have enough.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:29 pm

Mustard seed would definitely qualify as something small. And I could even tie it in to the Biblical angle...

Some excellent suggestions there, which I'm going to mull over a while. I'm leaning toward something journal/filofax/padfolio/portfolio-ish. The sort of little organizational things that make incredibly dorky people like myself clap with insane glee. Speaking of which, I now have a City Watch bag, a Vimes badge, and a "Laws and Ordinances of Ankh-Morpork" padfolio that make me clap with insane glee.

It takes so very little to make me stupidly happy.

Bathrobes are nice, but I'm always reluctant to buy clothes for girls for whom I am not doing laundry. Sizing issues can be sensitive. And buying bathrobes for my former male students might be a wee smidgen odd when they start graduating, given that most of them have, at one point or another, had a crush on me. It's the reward of always being in a good mood, smiling at them a lot and being one of the few females they know who are past puberty and pay them any attention. You're a veritable goddess if you can also identify at least three Spongebob Squarepants characters, three Transformers and talk Harry Potter.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I don't get the mustard seeds bit, does that have some special meaning in the US?

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:43 pm

Maybe a nice pen/pencil set? Maybe an Office Max gift card so he/she can get supplies for college? Vicodin?

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:43 pm

@SP

Not in the US especially, just in Christian theology.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 2:04 pm

If you're looking for something semi-dorky and organizational, here are a couple of ideas from Thinkgeek:

A robotic alarm clock with wheels. It started as an engineering student's project. It shrieks annoyingly and then leaps off your night stand and drives around your room, making you get out of bed to hunt it down and turn it off.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/91f2/

Neverlate 7-Day alarm clock. You can set it to wake you up at a different time each day of the week. Great if your student will have a complicated college schedule. I got this for my own daughter and it works great.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/788e/

Cheers, and thanks for all you do as a teacher!

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 8:00 pm

The uplifting theology of mustard seed.

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/lessons/mustard.htm

Here endeth the lesson.

Or, to sum up, Lesson: Faith can move mountains.

Moral: Faith is a very big girl. Strong, certainly.

I was eyeballing some of the more fun clocks ThinkGeek has. I run a 7-day alarm program on my computer and love it. I kind of liked the "flying clock" one that shot the "key" out and you had to find it and put it back in to kill the shrieking alarm. However, if she stays home and commutes, her mother and younger brothers and sisters might kill me if she loses the key for an extended period some morning when she has an 8 o'clock class...

I do wish the 7-day alarm clock had a little more visual pizzazz. I'm very drawn to the cute semi-dorky clocks, and bless her, she's a girl after my own heart that way.