Thanksgiving. The time of year we pack up for a long weekend and head back to our cold, rainy hometowns. If you are like everyone else at Stevens, you venture into New Jersey, New York, or somewhere in between. I’ve noticed a lot of interesting things that seem to occur during this time of year. My mom has always said that by Thanksgiving, everyone is ready to come home. When we start to feel a slight sore throat and getting up in the morning seems a little more difficult than usual, it is time to come home. When going to the gym seems like a death sentence because we are faced with a wind chill when leaving the house, it is time to go home. And when almost everything in our personal lives seems to be slowly, how do you say, blowing up right in front of us? Yup, time to go home.
Now, I am not one for the cold. Maybe it’s my Caribbean blood keeping me from ever being too hot, or maybe it is the New Jersey winters that I have never gotten used to after 21 years of being born and raised here. I’m not sure. But this time of year is always jam-packed with highs and lows altogether.
I’ve noticed that whenever it is time to go home for a break, something silly happens in my personal social life. Whether it be a new friendship that I want to foster that makes me want to stay in Hoboken longer, or a new relationship building that keeps me on my phone a lot, there is always something. I know now that being home is such a gift and privilege. When I was a freshman, I was constantly feeling like I should stay on campus and do as much as I could all the time. It’s that thing of friendship anxiety, where you want to be included in everything and have the best friend group and find the bestest of friends and meet all of the people ever. Exhausting. Getting older, I realize that being able to go home here and there is such a gift.
As someone from northern New Jersey, I can’t help but try to avoid people from school when I go home. There are a couple of amazing folks from my hometown who attend this school, and whom I have no problem with bumping into at our local supermarket. However, there are some folks I try to avoid at all costs. They’re the people who I get stressed about seeing at the giant mall near my hometown or the local restaurants in the area. They aren’t from my town, just around-ish. It’s terrifying to think of seeing a Stevens robot at Willowbrook Mall while I’m shopping over break. Nightmare.
Through and through, I am a homebody. I do enjoy going out. I do love an adventure. But when push comes to shove, I love my home. I love my bedroom and the roads I used to always drive on. I love to pass my elementary school and live down the block from my grandma. Getting to see my sisters and parents makes it all worthwhile.
The craziness of the holiday season is exciting and always comes around too fast. There is so much silliness and exhilaration that I always try to have as much fun as I can. Hopefully, you had a great Thanksgiving and got to celebrate with those you love most. And it is true and still something that I am learning: When I am at school and start to feel the familiar waves of nostalgia and valleys of exhaustion, I know it is time to go home.
