Thanksgiving offers time to recognize life’s obscurities
As I sit in the library, listening to my neighbor blast Spanish bedroom music so loudly in his ears and wondering if he doesn’t maybe want a 10-minute break in the bathroom, I suddenly realize that Thanksgiving is upon us.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. You get to eat a vast amount of amazing food (girls, feel free to binge, you can throw it all up later — just this once), reconnect with your family gerbil, Sasquatch, and remember the pilgrims and the Native Americans, the OBs (original biffles).
But my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the very premise of the holiday: the concept of being thankful. We often forget to appreciate all the good things in life, and that is exactly why we need this day to remind ourselves. I have compiled my own personal list of things I am thankful for, and if you happen to be feeling down-and-out about your own life, you are welcome to draw on my list for inspiration.
1. I am thankful to be an upperclassman. We all complain about the lack of privacy as freshmen, but you don’t realize just how much you miss being a freshman until the day you come home from class early and walk in on your roommate fully discussing her day with a stuffed Harry Potter toy you didn’t know she had.
2. I am thankful for the kindness of strangers. They include the Time Warner guy, (‘I wish you were DSL, girl, so I could get some high-speed access’), random dining hall employees (‘I just want you to know that they call me coffee ‘cause I grind so fine’) and fellow students (‘No way! Are those really all natural?!’).
3. I am thankful for those really beautiful architecture majors you never see. Who, much like that groundhog in February, resurface from their holes just often enough to remind you that they will probably make a lot of money in the future and now is the time to sink your claws in.
4. Most of all, I am thankful for the jewelry-making majors who usually make me laugh, the Winnick Hillel Center for hosting hookah in the sukkah, and my parents for giving the world to me.
Other people are thankful, too. Senior communication and rhetorical studies major Evan Gibbons is most thankful ‘for people allowing Evan to be Evan.’
Along with ‘the Baconator Double from Wendy’s, and the KFC Double Down, and DTS 228, my ‘Basic Social Ballroom Dance’ class, where I can just dance all my problems away. And for my twinkle toes,’ said Gibbons.
So don’t give up. Everyone has something to be thankful for. Plus, if you’re humble and you give thanks now, you’ll be rewarded for it later. Santa is always watching.
Yes, even during that time. Especially during that time.
Marina Charny is a senior English and textual studies and writing major. Her columns appear every Thursday, and she can be reached at mcharny@syr.edu.
