We all usually do the same thing each year for Thanksgiving. We prepare all week for one meal, we eat the meal, spend time with our family and friends, and then the holiday is over. Some families might even go around the table, taking turns telling everyone what they’re most thankful for that year.
But gratitude never seems to be the focus of the season.
Thanksgiving is supposed to be the time of the year when we reflect on everyone and everything that we have in our lives that we are thankful for. So, why aren’t we treating this holiday as just that?
As Thanksgiving break gets closer and closer, I have started to rethink my plans for the holiday. Although I know I will still go ice skating with my cousins on Thanksgiving morning, eat dinner at my grandparents’ house, play games all night with my family, and do all the family traditions that my family and I normally do to celebrate this holiday, I have decided to make one little change to my day.
This Thanksgiving, my focus will be on my own reflecting on everyone and everything I am grateful for this year. I have already started my process of self-reflection and have found myself most thankful for the two different sides of my life:
St. Bonaventure University
Although my love for this school started off slowly, St. Bonaventure University is one of the most important things to have ever happened to me.
If I had never decided my junior year of high school after a tour of the campus, that this was the college for me, I would never have found the place that means so much to me. When I first moved in freshman year, I never would have thought that my college years would have turned out this way.
I am extremely grateful for all this school has done for me. I started school here as a shy student unknown to the campus and the students who go here, but now this campus is one of my favorite places to be, and some students have gone from strangers that I shared class with, to my best friends.
Home
Although as a college student, my life right now is centered around the SBU half of my life, the other half is still most important to me. Even though everything I have in life is something to be grateful for, I am most grateful for those I love, no matter what.
No matter how busy I am with the SBU side of my life, I find myself missing the home side of my life every day, no matter how long it has been since I’ve been home. I will always miss my family, my dogs, my friends from home, and even my own bed in my own house. With that being said, I am especially thankful to be home for the holidays surrounded by the people I love this year.