First off, I think that Thanksgiving is under-appreciated because it is overshadowed by the winter holiday season. Once Halloween is over, people are grabbing their Christmas lights, trees, and Santa Claus figurines, eating peppermint bark, and blaring Christmas music on the radio. While this is one of my favorite times of the year, there was a point that I said, It is too d*** early for this. What about the Thanksgiving dinner? The celebration of another beautiful autumn season? The acknowledgment of American history? No, it’s never going to be as big as Christmas or Halloween, but it is still a national holiday that I think we should embrace and appreciate.

After everyone eats their weight in turkey, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie, they talk about how grateful they are to have such wonderful family and friends, a warm roof over their heads, plenty of food, and the like. Thanksgiving is a wonderful tradition that brings people closer together, as a yummy dinner should. If politics are brought up, however, there is no telling what hell will break loose. Regardless of Thanksgiving table talk, the gratitude we embrace that evening flies out the window the following morning because of Black Friday. The minute that Thanksgiving is over, there is a switch in everyone’s mind that flips to Christmas: buying and giving presents, baking, decorating trees, singing carols, the whole shebang. So of course, it makes sense that we are thankful one day for everything we have, but twenty-four hours later all the Black Friday deals make us act like chickens with our heads cut off. As we run around aimlessly from store to store and spend all of our money to supposedly save more money, we have already forgotten the lesson that Thanksgiving taught us. Christmas is an expensive and chaotic business, requiring at least a month of preparation to ensure that the happenings of December 25^th go as smoothly as possible. Everyone gets excited about Saint Nick’s annual appearance and the magic of holiday movies and excessive light displays. Christmas services in churches everywhere are long but beautifully executed as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is a joyful and spiritually riveting experience, the Christmas season.

As families gear up to take on the 2016 holiday season, I am mentally preparing myself for the weeks ahead. As a college student, I am in crunch mode for music juries and final exams, and it doesn’t help that my school lasts a week longer than most in the Spartanburg area. I have music to prepare for a Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra concert, and I have two upcoming church gigs. I signed myself up for this as a performance major, but it is nevertheless intimidating. With so many weekend commitments, I honestly don’t know when I will be able to shop or get into the holiday spirit. I am hoping that blaring Christmas music in my dorm and consuming lots of hot cocoa will get me through these final weeks of classes. Also, with supportive friends on campus and family only twenty minutes away, I am feeling pretty good that I will finish my fall semester with a bang. And the fact that Christmas is now less than a month away, I have something to look forward to besides practicing violin and piano on my winter break.

To my colleagues: stay focused and stay festive. We are in the home stretch and we have all the more reason to be excited with Christmas around the corner.