I bought my Thanksgiving flight home on the Fourth of July. 4 months and 23 days in advance. I thought, regardless of what crazy schedule I took on or whatever other plans came up my sophomore fall, I would set everything aside to go back and spend the holiday with family in Michigan.
Fast forward to a few days ago, November 14, I catch myself mid sentence telling my mom during a phone call that even though I’m coming home, she won’t be seeing any of me because I’d be too busy studying for my last Chem 17 midterm that following week. “I shouldn’t have even bought a ticket—Thanksgiving is just going to be a distraction.”
She didn’t try to convince me otherwise. As the mother of two college students, she was now used to watching her daughters spend their “breaks” cramming for exams or finishing off homework.
All throughout elementary school, and arguably moments of middle school, the buildup towards Thanksgiving break was apparent. The familiar turkey hand crafts, pilgrim hat costumes, and “What I am Thankful For” essays indicated to little Marwa that a holiday was right around the corner. Thanksgiving day itself was characterized by football, seeing family I hadn’t seen for a while, and eating a large, delicious dinner. Somewhere between High School and College though, things changed.
Thanksgiving became less of a time to engage myself with what I was truly thankful for in the greater perspective of life and more of a grace period to catch up on schoolwork.
I could go into the perversion of Thanksgiving for commercial reasons or other more apparent criticisms to the holiday, but Thanksgiving is still Thanksgiving—a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the year. The most disheartening thing about Thanksgiving now is the lack of celebration on my part and on the part of many other college students like me.
There is so much to be thankful for. And as much as I’m thankful for Orgo (it’s my chemistry-concentrator side speaking) or even having the ability to take classes no matter how demanding they may be, I’m more thankful for family and friends and my wellbeing.
I don’t mean to say that holidays are completely periods of unproductiveness or excuses meant to relieve us of our daily, academic obligations. And I am not a proponent of paroxysms of anxiety the night before an exam due to misused time. However, especially during a period meant to trigger some introspection, it is important to consider when and what your productiveness and energy are actually going towards.
With all that said, I will be trying to do things a little differently this year. I pledge to not look at any orgo material (or any other subject for that matter) over Thanksgiving Break. And maybe, just maybe, the world won’t come to an end because of it.