Thanksgiving. The time for turkey and stuffing to stuff your tummy until you fall into the lull of slumber we like to call “The Itis”. But for you people who love to completely graze over the fact that this wonderful holiday exists, let’s take a moment to explain what Thanksgiving means to any Resident college student.

Thanksgiving might mean just a day where all these relatives that you barely talk to come over your house and invade your personal space to eat all the food in your fridge and take up all the space at your dinner table. Well, yes. That is pretty much what Thanksgiving is. At Least for me, Thanksgiving use to be a time where my cousins, uncle, and grandparents come over, I am forced to cook with them and then we all gather in the living room and eat while watching the football game. Every year, I get in the same argument about Vietnam with my grandfather, a Vietnam veteran, and then we just Roast each other until everyone goes home. Thanksgiving has been this way since I can remember and I loved it all the same. It was always the same conversations and always the same people, yet it was always refreshing to have all these people who raised me in one room and congregating together. But the problem was I saw them almost everyday. Thanksgiving dinner was the same as a dinner I had once a week. Eating my grandmother's’ food was a weekly event in y house. How was it different?

Well, now I’m a college student. That’s the one of the biggest changes. Now I have to cook with my family. When I was younger, I was always able to avoid cooking and smiled as I enjoyed watching the game or sleeping until dinner. (Thanksgiving cooking is an all day event. Everyone knows this) Now I NEED to learn to cook food. Not just because I live on campus and I can’t always eat their cooking. In fact, my grandmothers’ are more than willing to drive up my favorite dishes from them, and they have. But I want to learn to cook like them. I can cook the same dish 80,000 times and it would never taste the same. I want to learn to cook like them so I never have to have them bring me food, but I can bring them food. I’ve always wanted to cook a meal for my grandmas’ and mother. Like a “Thank you for all that you’ve done for me” type of meal where I can express my love through a meal. That’s how they shared their love for their children and grandchildren, with the amount of food and the types of food they cooked. Home-cooked mean everything to me. It signifies that I’m safe. I can be whoever I want and know that my family loves me and accepts everything I do and every choice I make and I know that they will love me always. Isn’t that what Thanksgiving for? Displaying the love you have for your family and the people who helped raise you and spending the time you’d otherwise probably spend alone to appreciate those individuals and cherish them. Maybe I’m just getting emotional here, but that’s why I love Thanksgiving. Leaving home is a huge step for us college students and sometimes just seeing your family is enough to make you realize how much they mean to you. I could never not go home for Thanksgiving knowing that I’m missing out on seeing the people who I love and I know love me back. We might not realize it immediately, but leaving home makes most of us as vulnerable as possible. I know not being able to talk to my Mom everyday is enough to make me cry sometimes. I’m not saying that I’m not thankful that I get to live and learn on my own and experience college alone but close enough that I can still go home if I ask. Aren’t I still allowed to miss my family? Anyway It’s the fact that I don’t get to see them anymore that I love Thanksgiving more. Thanksgiving is the day where I get to celebrate the family I grew up with and the family that I know loves me. Spread the love!