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woman leaning on door looking out onto the city
woman leaning on door looking out onto the city
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Life

Spending My First Holiday Away From Home

Sanya Surya
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at VCU chapter.

Life is all about the choices we make. During my senior year of high school, while many of my friends made the choice to attend college in our home state of  Oregon, I chose to take a leap and move almost 3,000 miles away to Virginia. While I knew there would be challenges, such as the expenses of out-of-state tuition and flight tickets, I decided the opportunities were worth the trouble. What I didn’t realize was how soon I’d experience what it’s like to be away from my entire family and home for some of the hardest moments of the year. 

Until this year, I used to travel home for every school break, a privilege I am constantly thankful for. However, this year has been the longest I’ve been away from home in one stretch. I left Oregon at the beginning of July, and will not return until close to Christmas this year. While I will be spending half of Thanksgiving break with my roommate’s family, I’m returning alone to my college campus to work a 12-hour shift on Thanksgiving day and the few days after that. Knowing that everyone around me will be spending this time with their loved ones, and mine are so far away, has truly been a hard pill to swallow. 

However, growing up means we have to do what’s difficult, and the holidays are all about finding gratitude and joy even when life seems hard. So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I sat down to brainstorm a list of things I’m grateful for this upcoming holiday season: 

  1. My family. Whether they are 3,000 miles away in Portland, or halfway across the world in India as they currently are, my family shows up for me no matter what. I’m lucky to have parents who supported my decision to move so far away from home and helped me with the expenses involved in that journey, something that not many college students experience. 
  2. My apartment. As hard as it is to be alone for Thanksgiving, I have so much to be grateful for, including having a roof over my head, a comfy bed, and good food to eat. Having my own place to live is something I should never take for granted. 
  3. My college support system. Most of the people I’m surrounded by at my college are from Virginia, and they never fail to invite me home for breaks or weekends. Even this year, I’ll be heading to my roommate’s family’s home so that my holidays feel slightly more normal. 
  4. My job. The fact that I will be here to work a mandatory holiday shift should constantly remind me that I’m extremely lucky to have a job in the first place. When we’re tired at the end of a long shift or don’t want to wake up for work some mornings, it’s easy to forget just how lucky we are to be employed. 

This holiday season, wherever you are and whoever you’re with, take a few minutes to write down everything you’re thankful for. Adulting is hard, it truly is, but I believe that there are always things to focus on that make it easier on us.

Sanya Surya is a third-year pre-medical student in the Guaranteed Admission Program for Medicine at VCU Honors College. She is majoring in Bioinformatics and minoring in Chemistry. She hopes to become a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist and work in public health. Sanya's career interests revolve around social justice, education, advocacy, mental health, and women's health. She has volunteered in the past as a peer sex educator for Planned Parenthood's Teen Council program, teaching over 400 students in the Portland and Beaverton, OR metro area comprehensive sex education. She also works in mental health, with experience on two crisis hotlines supporting people in need. She is also an active performing artist, trained in 7 styles of dance, Indian and Western vocal music, instrumental music, and a former thespian.