Thanksgiving Break

I was thankful for something this Thanksgiving. It wasn’t just the break from the relentless onslaught of tests, ridiculous homework assignments, and ridiculous lectures. It wasn’t doing something out of the ordinary like fly home and go to a pie restaurant (mmm…Ike’s Pies…). And it wasn’t finally owning Jad, Simon, Ming, and Sam at various instances in a video game (although, in hindsight, I suppose I am thankful for that too). Those things are nice enough, but what I was really thankful for was the opportunity to do what I feel is in the ordinary.

College is a wonderful experience, and I can’t imagine becoming a mature adult without it, but it is so alien to me. It’s not that I don’t love being totally independent or living with friends; it’s just that you can’t be like that all of the time. You need to have a home to come home to, someone to get on your back when you don’t do your work, and friends who you can’t bother whenever you encounter a slight hitch in a homework assignment. You need to have places to go outside of walking distance, more than one room to live in, and a non-communal bathroom. You need to live in a house in a town/city where you need to go places to do things.

This Thanksgiving, I was thankful for the opportunity to live life as it has been for me for the last 18 years of my life.

I was fortunate to share this experience with my old friends, and my new friends were fortunate enough to share it with their old friends. I admit that I was a little bit anxious to be seeing people again, and for good reason; we’ve all changed. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it is this:

Those who do together, are together.

And so for all of the experiences we have not shared with each other, there are at least a hundred, or perhaps even a thousand, that we have shared. I’m glad we’re moving on, but I’m glad things have stayed the same.

And that is what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving.