Halloween provides children with pounds of candy and college kids with gallons of alcohol. Christmas gets a Michael Bublé album as its namesake. Thanksgiving merely sits in November, happy to be included in the holiday season even though it’s quite easily overlooked.
Other holidays have songs. Christmas has enough carols to last a whole month, The Fourth of July has dandy patriotic tunes, and Halloween even gets the “Monster Mash.” The only Thanksgiving song that comes to mind is Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre,” and besides its widespread anonymity, that song is more about hippies than Thanksgiving itself.
For years Thanksgiving has endured being the most underrated holiday. Sure, people think about it and they relish the excuse to skip class, but when having that normal, everyday conversation about which holiday is the best, Thanksgiving tends to slip the mind. While it may not be the Paul McCartney of holidays, Thanksgiving does a good job at being George Harrison, the very good but less recognized holiday.
When people think of Thanksgiving, they think of good food. As you sit down at the dinner table, an array of wonderfully mouth-watering treats rests before you. After months of college food, nothing beats the comfort of delicious fresh rolls, the whipped mashed potatoes, the crunchy and creamy green bean casserole and the turkey and stuffing. The entire process leaves you feeling as if you just were just served the greatest meal the human race could possibly conjure. Best of all, nothing beats that stuffed feeling that you get when you leave the table, except maybe dessert.
The other great aspect of Thanksgiving is that you don’t have to get people gifts. While there is nothing quite like the look on someone’s face when you get them the perfect present, 9 times out of 10, that doesn’t happen. Instead you either feel guilty that your gift wasn’t good enough or you get a horrible gift and are left with the extremely difficult task of pretending that you liked it. The lack of gifts also prevents you from spending hours at the store, on a college student’s budget. Instead of scratching your head at which object you can find for ten dollars that looks like you put a lot of thought into it, you get to sit on the couch and watch football while catching up with all the people you love.
But no matter how good of a meal you have eaten, the best part of Thanksgiving is the people. You get the chance to spend a whole day laughing, teasing and sharing family stories. You get to reunite with the people you’ve been Skyping with for weeks. Then, finally, after months at college, all of your friends are back in town. That precious moment when you see your friends for the first time makes the months of waiting worthwhile.
As college students, we’ve spent weeks partying, studying and meeting new people. We’ve endured tests, papers and all-nighters. We’ve celebrated our triumphs in sports and agonized over the defeats. But through all of these college experiences nothing will be quite as sweet as going home to see the family and friends again. Thanksgiving gives you an excuse to go back home, even though you don’t really need one to begin with and that’s something to be thankful for this holiday.
*— Dan Desrochers is a chemistry freshman. He can be reached at
letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.*
