Everyone knows what it means to break bread together: sharing a meal.

When we think about breaking bread, especially around the holidays, we think of our families gathered around a dining table piled high with freshly buttered rolls and carved turkeys and hams. We think of green bean casseroles and sweet potatoes, of the intoxicating smell of pumpkin and apple pies.

At Ursinus, we're lucky. Most of us get to join our families for the holidays, regardless of whether we only have to drive 40 minutes to home or take a three-hour plane across the country. For those that don't, we still get to have holiday meals in the dining hall. Yeah, it's Wismer, but you haven't lived if you haven't eaten the pumpkin ravioli. It's also pretty hard to complain when there are ham and roast beef carving stations at Christmas dinner.

The special meals aren't the best part, though. Not even close. The meals we eat every day are. No, I'm not talking about the slightly questionable meat or relentless variations of broccoli. I'm talking about how almost 100 percent of our entire student body lives and eats together. Every day. I'm talking about the friends that seem to have permanently secured their favorite table in Upper, or the ones that always have at least a few holding down the fort at noon lunch. The whole group may not always get there, but at least some do.

That is the greatest comfort of our meals, of our community, at least when it comes time to eat: someone is always there. Lower or Upper, it doesn't matter.

As long as you want company, you will never be alone at Ursinus.