Before I get into all the reasons that I have no particular affinity for Thanksgiving, I would like to preface that I love all of my family getting together to celebrate this holiday and to give thanks for the numerous blessings we have in our life. That being said, here are all the reasons Thanksgiving sucks

The Food

I’m not a fan of turkey, as most people aren’t, but for some reason we all delude ourselves one day out of the entire calendar year every year and pretend that we like this totally dry, unseasoned, disgusting slice of bird.

All of the food is so fattening and looks so unappetizing to me, that as someone who values their health and as a picky eater, I am often just left eating an entire plate of mashed potatoes, chicken (if there is any) and rolls for dinner.

Also, as someone who has been a vegetarian for the past nine months, my food options are even LESS limited. I am not looking forward to my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian, and I sincerely hope my family is kind and leaves me some extra rolls to fill up on while I skulk in the corner.

Family

As I said above, I love that all of my family gets together to celebrate and give thanks for our blessings. However, as a child of split parents, I am always left trying to divide my time between all of my families.

My families do not celebrate Thanksgiving near each other, often with my mom’s family celebrating in Dallas, and my dad’s family celebrating three hours away, which makes it near impossible to spend time with both sides on turkey day.

Sitting Around for Hours Doing Nothing

With a birthday or Christmas, at least you have the extra benefit of opening presents to have some way of filling the time of the holiday. After you finish eating on Thanksgiving, you are mostly just left sitting around doing nothing for hours on end. In recent years, I have tried to engage with my male family members and watch the football game with them, but I can only feign interest for so long.

Recently, my mom has allowed my siblings and I to take naps, so that makes the day go by faster, but most of my childhood was definitely spent with my cousins playing games and trying to find ways to pass the time.

The “Break”

For many college students, Thanksgiving break is just a tease for winter break. At my lovely university, we don’t even get the full week off for Thanksgiving break. (Thanks A&M) As a result, I am left trying to crunch the numbers, check flight times, and check my absences for the semester to find out the soonest possible time I can leave and go home for the break to celebrate a holiday I don’t even care about.

Overbearing Questions

No, Aunt Sharon, I do not have a boyfriend, I have no plans for my life past me eating this roll right now, I’m not changing my liberal arts major, and I spend my weekends sleeping. That’s how my life is going right now.

I do love my family, but all families everywhere could cut the college students a little slack and not ask them overbearing questions during Thanksgiving and just let them enjoy their horrible food in peace.

My Birthday

This last reason, the main reason for my Thanksgiving hatred, is one that not many people can relate to. I was born on Black Friday, and as a result, my birthday is always near Thanksgiving. My birthday kind of always gets lost in all the hubbub, or I am stuck in I-45 traffic on my birthday for five hours during a three hour drive trying to make it back to College Station.

Also, my mom loves to pull me aside every year on Turkey Day and remind me that, however many years ago to the year of my birth, that she was in excruciating pain and could not enjoy or partake in what is her favorite holiday, because she was in labor with me. (Love you though, Lety and thanks for giving birth to me!)

Honestly, I think if my birthday were at any other time of the year, I would not have as much hate in my cold dead heart for Thanksgiving.

Who am I kidding? Thanksgiving sucks.