If you are unaware of the tradition of Friendsgiving, Urban Dictionary defines it as “The celebration of Thanksgiving dinner with your friends. This usually occurs on the Wednesday before or the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, since Thanksgiving is usually reserved for family gatherings”. Though Friendsgiving does not have to be limited to these two dates, it is an event that is quite obviously centered around the Thanksgiving holiday. What better way to show your friends that you are thankful for them than by enjoying a lovely potluck dinner and playing ridiculous games together.
I recently celebrated Friendsgiving with about twenty of my close college friends. We each brought a dish for the potluck dinner and got together at two friends’ house. We ended up with a full Thanksgiving spread, and I was personally very impressed with how well everyone could cook and what a variety of food we had. We almost could have passed for actual adults if we hadn’t all been talking about how well our boxed mixes turned out or how many times we had to call our parents to make sure we were preparing something correctly!
But, as important as food is (especially when it doesn’t come from your university’s dining hall), the food was by far the least important part of our gathering. You could argue that the food was just the excuse to bring us together in the first place, but it was really our desire to spend this time with each other that was most important. The best part of the whole evening was getting to escape the impending stress of a semester coming to an end, and all that comes with this. I wasn’t worried about the test that was due the next morning that I still hadn’t taken, or the fact that I had not yet looked at the course catalog for next semester when registration was only a week away. I simply enjoyed the moment.
While we were eating, we went around the table and told each other our highs and lows for the week, followed by what we were most thankful for in our lives. After dinner we played the hat game, or fish bowl, and everyone embarrassed themselves with how bad they were at either describing or guessing the famous person drawn out of the hat. It’s not the raging party weekends that we will look back on and remember (and this isn’t solely based on the state we may or may not be in on these weekends) in the years to come.
When we really start to reflect on what times were most important during our college years, we will think of events like Friendsgiving, where we spent quality time getting to know and appreciate the new family that we have chosen as our own. So during this holiday season, as easy as it is to get wrapped up in family affairs, don’t neglect your second family. I am beyond thankful for both of mine.
