A (Thanksgiving) Break Before the Storm

By my calculations, I ate roughly… 30 pounds of food on Thanksgiving. Okay maybe not, but it sure felt like it! The Tabor cafeteria may serve some good food, but I’d take my mom’s cooking over the caf food any day!

There’s something really special about living with a group of friends who are literally across the hall. Before we all took off for our wonderful homes for Thanksgiving break, a few of my close friends and I made the trek to my roommate’s home to have our own little “Friendsgiving.” We had a blast cooking great food together and also seeing my roommate’s hometown. It’s one thing to hear about her background and home life, but it’s another to see it in person. Even after knowing her for nearly a full semester, that experience taught me more about her than any of the stories she’d told me as we first got to know each other.

New experiences are still happening every so often, like going home for the first major holiday of my college life. Of course, I’d gone home for a weekend or two during the semester, but Thanksgiving break was different. This was the first time that I’d had to travel home to be with family for a holiday, and it struck a chord in my heart. I caught myself wondering on many occasions if this would be the new normal for the rest of my life, having to drive long distances to be with my family to celebrate.

My family’s excitement to see me made my heart swell, but it also brought a hint of sadness that this could be how it will always be from this point on. I miss the normality of seeing my family every day, and it’s very strange that it feels strange to see them consecutive days over the break. Coming to college, I believed that the toughest part of the transition would be the first month or so of freshman year. I discovered that for me, it has been the struggle of feeling conflicted with the comfort of the college routine. I feel settled in at Tabor, and coming to terms with my level of normality here is taking a bit of thought process, which became heightened during my time at home over Thanksgiving break.

Even though the break was about getting away from campus and classes, I was bombarded with homework. I was really disappointed that I had to dedicate an entire day of being home to the classes that I was supposed to be getting away from! I remember from high school being assigned work to complete over breaks, but I was hoping to be free from that in college. News flash: it doesn’t happen.

With less than two weeks in the semester, now is the time to start cracking down on the books. Finals week is creeping up, and only time will tell how it turns out. Whether I’m ready or not, it’ll be here before I know it. If you don’t hear from me again, finals week took me as its prisoner!

Stay Taboriffic!