Experience v. Material Thing

I was watching a rerun of America's Next Top Model recently and one of the models made a comment that stuck with me. She had just won one of the challenges, and all of these challenges have prizes for the winner. Her prize was a helicopter ride (with two "friends" in the group of wannabe models) over Hawaii. After she got back and the other girls asked how it was, her response was that it's not like it was jewelry or a Wal-Mart gift card. (Some of the other prizes that were won by other girls.) Another model commented that the rest of the girls would have given anything to have gotten that experience, but the winner couldn't appreciate it.

This made me start to think about how many people tend to value material possessions versus life experiences. We get caught up in having to have the perfect house, the perfect car, the perfect clothes, for ourselves and our children. We get caught up in having to have the accessories for ourselves and our house that will take those perfect things we already have to higher level of perfection. That makes some people happy, and I don't fault them for that. Having the next best thing isn't what makes me happy. What makes me happy is being able to save up for an experience that I may only have one chance to experience.

I'm the kind of person who prefers the life experiences. You can see this by looking at my life bucket list. (One day I might post it on here.) It's full of places that I want to travel to. I also tell people that when I retire, I want to be one of those people who drives around the country in an RV and collects stickers for each state they've visited. As part of the Valentine's gift for my boyfriend, I made a bucket list of places I wanted to see here in Texas. Some of my travel highlights include the semester I spent in London (side travels to Scotland, Wales, France, Germany and Italy), the Kentucky Derby, Opening Day for Major League Baseball, Boston (one of my FAVORITE cities to visit!), and Mardi Gras in NOLA. There's nothing that I would rather have in my possession than the memories of those trips.

It's not that I don't like to receive gifts! I love gifts! I just enjoy spending time experiencing things with people I care about, even if it's just myself, a little more.