What to Expect for Thanksgiving Break

You’ve survived the endless rounds of midterms, and if you live in the same area as your school, you might have already snuck in a few trips back home to relax in the pure solitude that is your racecar shaped bed. With most dorms closing for the holidays—and your mom constantly asking what exact time you’ll be arriving on her doorstep—you know that there’s no way to escape coming home for Thanksgiving break. Which also means your closest high school friends—and the people you’ve always secretly hated but still follow on Insta—will be back in town too. So what should you expect for thanksgiving break in college?

To prepare you with a blanket statement: everything will be different.

But to reassure you: It’s not a bad thing!

It doesn’t mean you’ll see your best friend and question who took their soul and replaced it with something unrecognizable while keeping the body functioning! It just means when you come together, the stories will include new names (don’t get jealous) and new experiences (don’t feel left out). Then again, who knows, maybe you’re the one who’s broken not only out of their shell, but completely obliterated it and have left it in the dust of old yearbook pages.

College is a great time for people to come out from their siblings’ shadows or parents’ expectations and drill a little deeper into who they think they are, which sometimes looks completely different from the extracurriculars that defined them in high school. The straight-edge chick could now be the most social alcoholic, and the dick head jock could’ve refocused their energy into an improv team. Anything is possible! (And believe me, after your trip home for Thanksgiving you’ll have more extreme 180 examples than these two.)

The most important thing to hold onto is the excitement and energy you get from seeing and hanging out with old friends. As previously touched on, don’t feel like the addition of new people in their lives means you’ve been replaced.  Remind yourself that you too have made new friends, acquaintances, fuck buddies, etc., and none of them will erase the memories & inside jokes you have with your childhood friends, so why would they let that happen to you?  The fact that they made time for you (and vice versa) during this short stint of a holiday break should speak volumes about how much they value your friendship!

The most important thing to remember is that Thanksgiving is a time for being stressed out by your family, not your friends. Cheers!