Everybody looks forward to Thanksgiving break, there’s no denying that. However, there are plenty of things about this break that can be a bit daunting. Upperclassmen should know what I’m talking about.

If Thanksgiving break is the first time you’re going home all semester, you might find home to be less relaxing than it used to be. Personally, I came home for my first Thanksgiving break to find my kitchen looking almost completely different from how I had left it. My parents had repainted the walls and gotten all new appliances. The only things that hadn’t been changed yet were the cabinets, the floor and the walls. This year I’ve been told that our whole living room furniture set has been replaced. Hopefully these new couches are as comfortable as the old ones.

Another problem is getting reacquainted with any pets you may have. I remember coming home for break and my dog being absolutely ecstatic to see me. After the initial excitement wore off, she sat on the opposite couch from me and just glared at me for hours. It took a few days for her to really warm up to me again, and of course this was just in time for me to leave again after another handful of days.

The worst issue that I’ve found to be rather troublesome is dividing time between my parents, my friends, my boyfriend’s family and my sister’s family. Most of my friends go to different universities and we never really visit each other. My parents and sister’s family are more likely to be excited at my return. On the other hand it’s nice to be able to spend some time with my boyfriend and his family over the holidays. For me this predicament results in a yearly football game with my friends and two separate Thanksgiving meals on the same day.

Two Thanksgiving meals might sound amazing to some people, but there are definitely some down sides. Every year my mother and my boyfriend end up asking me a series of questions that will eventually lead to each meal having a different start time. The other problem is getting through the first meal on time to get to the second meal while trying not to collapse from too much tryptophan in the meantime.

During this juggling act of quality time you might begin to wonder when the relaxation part of Thanksgiving break is going to begin. The secret is that there really isn’t much in the way of time to chill out. This goes especially for those who have a job to return to when they get home. It’s even worse if you have a big assignment or a bunch of smaller assignments to get done for class.

On the bright side, Thanksgiving break gives you a pretty accurate preview of what things are going to be like for our month-long winter break. Except during winter break you have no potential homework. Despite the hectic nature of it all, have a great Thanksgiving break and don’t do anything stupid.

For some tips on how to make the perfect pie crust, here’s a video from Food Network’s Paula Deen.

Tags: family, friends, quality time, Radford University, relaxation, Thanksgiving break, Whim

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Vent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.