I've never tried Secret Santa before. In fact, despite having a Reddit account for 5 years, I never actually engaged in the community sincerely until a few months ago. It is a bit ominous and not unlike being the new kid at school. It makes me happy, though, so I tried this program.

The program is overwhelming. It asks SO MUCH! And I was anxious about being selfish or rude, so I didn't know the balance between talking about myself, sitting on Santa's lap and going "I want this and this and this", and making things difficult by not saying what I wanted. It was really worrying. As well, I sort of blanked out on what about myself was relevant to type. Finally, I put a bunch of things down, including my love of Marvel comics, board games, puzzles, and more. I was also worried things would go wrong, so I eventually went the opposite of being meek and included such superfluous and irrelevant details as the fact that I consider myself a SJW and that I'm engaged and that Im lactose intolerant.

"This is a disaster. You're not going to get a gift because the internet can be awful sometimes, and you just made a fool of yourself on this program and you already messed this up somehow."

But I dove in, you know?

And then I get this gift. This marvelous, beautiful, kind gift.

Not only is it a board game, it's a strategy game that requires critical thinking. Not only is it a strategy game, it's about superheroes. It's creative, it's fun, it's delightful, and it's exactly what my collection needed. More than this, it arrived almost immediately. You can tell that my Secret Santa, whoever they are, instantly read my whole profile in great detail and rushed to a swift delivery service to get it to me right away.

Enclosed was a note to top it all off, which I am so messy I lost in between opening it and making this post, but I definitely remember what it said.

Happy Non-Denominational Holidays

A nice, affectionate little wink to the whole SJW thing and the stereotype of avoiding saying Merry Christmas.

So here's the person I don't know and, if I'm understanding the program correctly, may never know, who took time out of their day to get me a gift immediately that, top to bottom, makes it clear they read my whole profile in great detail and worked to make sure to integrate as much of it as possible, from the concept to the card.

The internet most certainly can be really awful sometimes, but people like this remind me how there are many people that want to spread many kindnesses. It warmed my heart and started this holiday off perfectly. I felt cared for and appreciated, whcih is a great start to the season.

Moments before I wrote this message, I sent out my Secret Santa gift, but I made sure to spend some time looking up as much as I could about my recipient, purely because I wanted to honor the kindness my own gifter showed me.

Thank you, Secret Santa. You really brought several bright days into the holiday season. I hope you are having a wonderful holiday.

With all due respect, M