Every time the holiday season comes around, people start speaking of all the things they are looking forward to. Autumn leaves, pumpkin patches, hot cocoa, turkey and cranberry sauce, snow-covered trees, Christmas lights, presents, the new year. All are reasons to get excited, and all bring together the best types of people.
Following the many tragedies across the globe in the past year, as well as the losses many of my close friends have felt, I have begun to truly realize how precious and valuable life is. You never know just how long you have, so you cannot take a single day for granted. It is because of this that I realized just how thankful I am for my family this Thanksgiving.
After being away at college for a year and a half now, I have come to grasp just how much I miss my family back home. I would not give the friends I've made and the experiences I've had here at my university for the world; however, there is something about home that keeps me looking forward to making the six-hour drive. I don't know where I would be without my family, and I am certain that I would not be the person I am today without the people who have stood behind me before I was even born.
My family...sure they can be a little much at times, but that's the best way that they could be. I always look forward to going home to the family dinners full of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, not to mention my parents and siblings. I love the traditions we have of always doing holidays at our house, which means hectic cleaning beforehand that usually results in at least one of my siblings being sent to their room for not helping. At least one drink has to be spilled every holiday dinner, whether it is one of the kids' sippy cups or my grandma spilling her apple cider on the carpet.
It's also the little things that I miss about my family. I miss Sunday mornings where my parents blast old country music downstairs while cooking biscuits and gravy. I miss driving down the road and seeing my cousins playing in the yard. Waking up in my bed next to my dog cuddled up next to me. Sitting out on the swing and reading a book. Drinking a cup of coffee with my youngest sister while she drinks hot chocolate and we watch an episode of Pokemon. It's these simple things that get me missing home and wishing I wasn't so far away at school.
I think that every Thanksgiving I am honestly the most thankful for my family. I know that I have been blessed with more than I deserve, and each time we all get together I am reminded of how much I truly have. I am so incredibly thankful for my family, and I hope they all know just how much they mean to me.
