Why Gift Cards Are Stupid

              So, I've wondered for a while now why money wasn't seen as an acceptable gift. I mean, honestly, who would complain if they got money? It's awesome. It's useful. The only valid thing people can complain about when they receive money is the amount of thought that went into it. But honestly, finding someone a gift within your price range that they'll like is really hard, no matter how well you know them. You can never tell for sure if the person will like it or not since people will most often pretend to like a present that they don't care for just to spare your feelings.

              Right after Christmas, if you go on eBay or craigslist, you will see a ton of unwanted Christmas presents being sold online for really cheap, but you'll never see an "Unwanted $50 bill". 

              So honestly, who's making such a big deal about gifting money? Whoever they are, if they're ever gifted money and they don't want it, they can send it to me. I won't complain, I promise ;)

              Here's the part that really doesn't make sense. For some reason, the world has decided that it's unacceptable to gift money. That's stupid by itself. But what really makes no sense is that I can't give you $20 for your birthday, but I can spend that on a $20 gift card and give it to you instead? Do people not see how stupid that is?! What's even worse than that is that gift cards are literally money minus the freedom to spend it wherever you want. Why would I spend these $20 (that I can spend anywhere I want) on a little plastic card that I can only use at a few select shops? Perhaps even only one? And then, by purchasing this little plastic card, I put an expiration date on my money. 

              Also, just to get this out of the way, a $20 gift card is not worth $20. Not even close. Let me put this further into perspective: Imagine I owed you $20. Imagine as I was paying you back, instead of giving you a $20 bill, I give you a $20 Toys-R-Us gift card. Would you consider that to be me paying off my debt, or would you do something along the lines of laugh/bash my face in until I gave you $20 cash? 

              Exactly. Because a gift card is NOT worth as much as the money it was purchased with. It's worth a lot less. 

              You could end up only being able to use that card on one store. You couldn't use that card to buy yourself a pizza (unless it happened to be a gift card for that particular joint). Could you imagine how stupid you'd look if you handed the pizza man a Toys-R-Us gift card as payment for your food? Why would you wish that upon yourself or someone else? Exchanging your money for a gift card is like throwing your money away. Literally. A New York Post article estimated that between 2008 and 2014, $44,000,000,000 worth of gift cards went unused, which means that you just gave your money away to those companies for nothing in return. 

              After reading this, do you still want to go out and buy a gift card as a gift for someone?

Do yourself a favor and stop wasting your money on these stupid gift cards. After hearing all of this, if you still feel like giving someone a gift card, do them a favor and just give them the money instead. 

Note: I hope that after reading this you don't think any less of me. I know I sound a bit like a greedy, money-loving, pretentious jerk, but it was hard to sound like anything less than that on this particular subject. I also hope I didn't offend anyone who has given me a gift card before, because that's not my intention at all. 

Stigmas

            So, I’ve come to the conclusion that people mock other people’s struggles for two main reasons: Either they don’t understand them, or they understand them all too well. That’s why everybody is uncomfortable when it comes to talking about mental illness - more specifically, anxiety and depression. They’re uncomfortable subjects, and it’s weird because so many people struggle with these things, millions of people, and yet, they’re still so misunderstood. There are so many stereotypes and stigmas surrounding these very real struggles. It’s unreal how misunderstood these mental illnesses are, especially considering how common of an issue they are. Depression affects millions of people, and yet, people still think it’s a choice. The reality is, you don’t choose to have these things. You don’t wake up and decide, “I think I’m going to try to be depressed.” That’s not how it works, and if people are doing that, that’s just contributing to the overall misunderstanding of these problems. It makes sense that these issues are so misunderstood when there are people out there who are saying, “I have anxiety because I get nervous meeting new people,” or, “I have depression because I get sad sometimes.” That’s why people have got to stop perpetuating these false stereotypes. There needs to be a mutual understanding of what it truly is; what it truly feels like; how it affects someone. A clinically depressed person cannot just stop being depressed, and this is the advice that they get from people who don’t understand. People say, “Just stay strong. Put a smile on your face. Try something new. Go meet new people.” The reality is that depression will stop you from doing all of these things. People still have this weird notion that you choose to be happy (or not). So happiness is a choice, your frame of mind affects everything? Well, not when the chemicals in your brain are all messed up. You don’t choose to get depression; you don’t choose to be born with anxiety. You don’t get to choose these things. When it comes to hurting yourself, people make all these jokes: “Oh, I’m going to go cut myself because you said that." People don’t realize that maybe there’s someone around who can hear you who has been struggling with that, and they just go make a joke about it, like it’s some foreign issue that nobody around has ever had to deal with. It’s just something crazy people do, right? That’s what it’s treated like. You can’t be like, “Oh, yeah, I can make this joke because none of us are like those crazy people.” You can’t do that. And you shouldn’t be making those jokes in the first place, I mean, for the reasons I mentioned from the very beginning, I understand why these people are doing what they’re doing, and it’s easier to cope with something you don’t understand if you make a joke about it. The sooner these people realize what they’re doing, the sooner they realize that stuff they don’t understand doesn’t have to be scary, maybe they’ll stop cracking jokes about slitting your wrists. Maybe they’ll stop thinking killing yourself is funny. Maybe they’ll stop telling their friends, “Oh, go kill yourself.” Maybe they’ll stop throwing these serious phrases around in public places where someone with depression, someone who’s survived a suicide attempt, could hear. So many people know what it’s like to have your struggles made into jokes, and that’s just not fair. All these stigmas surrounding mental illness just contribute to them being made out as trivial things you can get over, things you’re faking. 

            If you talk about your depression or anxiety, you’re seeking attention, you just want people to pay attention to you, you want people to feel bad for you. If you don’t talk about it, you don’t really have it, you’re faking it. If you don’t act depressed or anxious, you’re faking it. You’re not depressed. You’re just saying that. You’re just using it as an excuse. 

           That’s what's being said to people who struggle with depression and anxiety. So the only thing I want to do is make other people aware of this. No one needs to be making this world even harder for people who are mentally ill. You can help make it easier. Support people who are dealing with these things. I find the number of suicides per year appalling, especially considering that we can do something about that number.