Good food, presents, cold weather and traveling are synonymous with the holiday season. For most people, family time is also an integral part of the holidays, but many college students can’t afford to go home or can’t leave their classes or jobs in order to take a vacation. Even though some students will be away from their families this winter, can they still celebrate the season to its fullest?
Not Going Home Doesn’t Mean Giving Up Holiday
by Deborah Yeargin
“Home for the holidays” is what the cliché says, but “unless you are a college student” should be the footnote.
Many NSU students face the upcoming holiday season without a chance to go home and spend time with their families. What they do not realize is that they can survive, laugh and build incomparable memories without their families. This special time of year is defined by what we do and what we give to the world, not just whom we sit next to at the dinner table.
I am a family girl. I grew up surrounded by incredible people with whom I spent almost all of my time. My family is huge, with my parents, four siblings, six nieces and nephews, 31 aunts and uncles, and 48 first cousins, with a large collection of spouses and little ones. My family is my life.
On Thanksgiving night, we all gather together at Aunt Margie and Uncle Joe’s house after our separate feasts, to share every kind of pie imaginable. Aunts and cousins carry in pies of all colors and tastes, covering every inch of flat surface in the kitchen.
Christmas is held at my Uncle Denny and Aunt Linda’s place, and a mass of people cram into one very small room with a very large Christmas tree. We light candles, read the Christmas story and sing carols.
But I have been gone for five years. I am following my dreams, pursuing an education, and my family is far away. Being away from them around the holidays took some time getting used but it has become a wonderful experience.
Now I make the holidays my own and discover what each one truly means to me. It is a chance to see what these special days feel like, not clouded by routine family gatherings. Instead, the days are spent doing things that I chose, things that I love and things that define me as an adult.
I do not intend to celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas by making my dog, cat and myself a turkey dinner with delectable sides and toppings. I also will not lie in my pajamas hugging a teddy bear, missing my family and crying all day. Instead, I will find a way to express my thankfulness and the giving side of my personality. This will let me give my own meaning to the holiday season.
On Thanksgiving, I will wake up early and be thankful for a new day. I will push myself through a grueling workout, be thankful for my health and fitness, make breakfast and be thankful for the provisions I have. Of course, I will make a phone call to my family and they will pass the receiver around the room so I can give everyone a “hello” and an “I love you,” because I still am thankful for them, too.
Then, I will spend the rest of the day volunteering. I am thankful I have the opportunity to give a meal to someone who really needs one. Sitting down and sharing a meal with a person who others usually overlook is one of the best parts of the holiday.
Christmas will be spent in a similar way. I’ll sip hot cocoa and, hopefully, wear shorts and a T-shirt, instead of freezing in the bitter Ohio winter weather. I will give an extra treat or two to the critters and give gifts to my friends. Some silly knee-high socks for “sassy-sock Saturday” are already in my Amazon shopping cart, just waiting for Black Friday. I also will make a phone call home, because I’ll still want to give my family smiles.
Again, giving something to those who have nothing to give back will be the highlight of my day. I have made a tradition of buying cookies for the homeless people around my neighborhood. Stopping to hand them out is a simple way to give a smile to those who need it most.
Each holiday, I make a point to give well wishes, and I share in special moments with anyone that I can. Since I’m not with my family, I will be able to surround myself with others who will help define and express my version of the real meaning of the holidays.
There’s something missing without family
by Samantha MacCarty
Imagine the smell of grandmother’s cooking — her freshly baked pumpkin and pecan pies radiating through the house with a smell that makes your mouth water. The feel of home puts a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach. I never really understood what the phrase “home sweet home” meant until I went to an out-of-state college. Being a transfer student from a community college, this is my first year away from home. I have never been happier to go home to see my family and friends for the holidays.
Going home is a chance to see family and friends I left behind. For me, it is going back to northern Nevada, back to the mountains, the pine trees and the snow. It means going back to my small town where Main Street is completely decked with holiday lights, going ice skating and skiing with friends I’ve known since elementary school. Coming from a small town, family has always been of the utmost importance to me, so going back to see them is exciting.
I used to take family reunions and the traditions we shared for granted. I knew they were important, and I enjoyed spending time with my family. But what I did not realize was how much I would end up missing them all: seeing them all debate over stupid topics while watching a football game, and spending most of the time with my cousin. We would talk and poke fun at the dumb things that our parents, aunts and uncles were bickering about. When the family got together, something interesting always ended up happening. This year, I will be missing Thanksgiving, which means missing out on my grandma’s amazing cooking and the crazy events that are sure to happen when family gets together.
I will be making memories of my own here for Thanksgiving by spending it being thankful for the amazing friends I have made here. However, it is my first time away from home. I feel it’s going to be a bit hard. I already feel homesick, and not being able to see everyone I rarely see anyway would make staying in South Florida for Thanksgiving that much harder. It is why I am so excited to go back over Christmas break to see my friends and family again.
It’s crazy how everyone gets stressed about what gifts to buy and what and where dinner is going to be, yet everything always turns out perfect. But it is the pre-holiday traditions that I enjoy the most, especially going hiking through the snowy mountains to find a Christmas tree. It is a tradition that I share with my brother, sister, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It is a blast to go hiking in search for the perfect Christmas tree. When we finally find it, we cut it down and carry it to the car, competing with the rest of the family to see who found the best tree. To most people, hiking about a mile or so with a giant tree on your shoulders seems like it wouldn’t be fun. But to me, it is a bonding experience that I share with just my older brother and sister, making sarcastic jokes about who is doing the most work. But when it comes down to it, we are able to carry it through the unmarked paths. It is a lot of work, but at the end, we have a gratifying sense of accomplishment.
It isn’t just about going back for the holidays, it is going home. It is going back to open arms, to see friends, and, most of all, not having to worry about schoolwork for a month or so. It is practicing traditions that have been done for years, as well as making new memories to talk about later and being able to say, “Hey remember when this happened?” Going home is a reminder that, even though cousins and friends are all grown up and spread across the country, we can still come together to make new memories and commemorate the past.
