Because I only had only four days off of school and it would take a day to travel home and a day to travel back, Thanksgiving just wasn't meant to be spent at home. A heartbreaking realization at first turned in to pure excitement when I found out my best friend from home, Asia, was going to be joining me in Boston. We hadn't seen each other for a whopping three months, the most time we've spent apart since we met. Needless to say, the countdown to the day she arrived was greatly anticipated.
Asia was greeted with many happy tears, marking the start of our Thanksgiving break. We were hardcore relaxing, sharing tea and biscotti from the famous Mike's Pastry and catching up on the last three months of our separate lives.
We spent our first day together feasting upon nothing but New England Clam Chowder, exploring the historic North End, and freezing our Californian asses off. The warm, shoe-less showers made up for it though, and the home cooked, authentic Chinese food we gorged upon was a great change from the dining hall grub.
With no classes to attend, Thanksgiving morning was kicked off by sleeping through most of the day. When we finally deemed it wasteful to stay in bed any longer, we rolled out of bed and onto the couch to watch a few "Friends" Thanksgiving specials and set the mood for the day ahead. Deciding to be especially ambitious considering combined we have enough cooking experience for about half of a person, we then started to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal we had planned for the evening. We weren't that cool of course, our pumpkin pie was already made, our stuffing came from a box, our gravy and cranberry sauce was store-bought, and we bought turkey breasts instead of a whole bird. However, we successfully managed to make everything without burning down the house and I suffered only a small burn, a minor causality compared to what we were expecting (the both of us had our eyes on the fire extinguisher every time we checked the oven).
Our Friendsgiving couldn't have been better. It was just the break I needed from the work load of Boston University and my somewhat stressful social life. I didn't have to make evening plans for going out or scramble to find someone to go to the dining hall with me; there wasn't a thing to worry about. It was such a relief being around someone so familiar who knows absolutely everything about me, including the fact that I am not actually funny.
Dinner was lovely and more than delicious, surprisingly enough, but it was different. Where were the crying children? Where were the family politics? The worrisome grandparents? The drunk uncles? Friendsgiving was great, but I really missed my family.
To help treat my homesickness, I FaceTimed my dad's family after dinner. Sure enough, everyone was together. It was just like I always remembered it. Our puppy, who I have yet to meet, scavenged the kitchen floor. A movie played in the opposite room to entertain the kids. My aunt and uncle cooked while family friends set the table. My grandma and step-mom socialized while my dad wondered why his teeth looked so white on camera. Everything was perfect. Meanwhile, my mom was having a quaint, dinner with a family friend at one of our favorite restaurants on the lake. All was as it should be.
It was then that I realized something crucial: my family isn't going anywhere. They are always going to be there for me and I am not missing anything by not being there. Besides the new puppy, everything was the same. I was right where I needed to be, at a great school, studying great things in a great city. My life here is new but it's exciting and I am doing exactly what I should be doing in this phase of my life. I know exactly what is at home, however, if I was at home, I'd hate to think that my time there would be spent wondering what else is out there. I needed Friendsgiving. I needed it to realize that home will always be there and that this whole college thing is not temporary. This is where I am now, and this is exactly where I need to be.
