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wasn’ a big fan of
Thanksgiving growing up.
It was that holiday that wasn’t
really a holiday. A day that all
the adults made a great hubbub
about, but one that a child has
difficulty seeing the value of.

There are no presents. No
lucky money. No one person to
focus the occasion upon. No goody
bags. It’s always just been a meal
with as much of the family present
as possible.

And nothing has changed
since childhood. It’s still just a
meal. But my perception has
changed. There’s a greater
appreciation. In fact, Thanksgiving
may be, if not my most favourite,
my most valued holiday of the year.

Of course, it strikes me as
perfectly natural that the second
Monday in October is a day that
only becomes more treasured
as time passes. As kids, we are
focused on material objects.
Christmas reigns supreme. Sitting
around a stuffy table while our
elders spouted some nonsense
about how important the day is
shouldn't be particularly high on
any juvenile’s list.

My last few have been some of
the most memorable of my life. For

© Get foknowus!

© The Other Press has been Douglas College’s student newspaper since 1976. Since 1978 we have
been an autonomous publication, independent of the student union. We area registered society
under the Society Act of British Columbia, governed by an eight-person board of directors
appointed by our staff. Our head office is located in the New Westminster campus.

© The Other Press is published weekly during the fall and winter semesters, and monthly during
the summer. We receive our funding from a student levy collected through tutition fees every
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member ofthe Canadian University Press (CUP), a syndicate of student newspapers that includes
papers from all across Canada.

: the past three years, I’ve gathered

: with friends for some grand old

: Thanksgiving potluck dinners.

: Each one has been better than

: the last. In a generation often so

: flippant about expressing feelings
: openly, Thanksgiving is a welcome
: prompt for whatever seems too

: soppy for general day-to-day

hangs. And even at these events,

: there’s seldom that much more

: said on the topic. But there doesn’t
: need to be. It’s understood. There's :
: a knowing in the room that neednt :
: manifest itself as an obvious show.

Until this year though,

my family’s side of things

had not really seen the same

: transformation of feelings that my
: friend circle had managed to elicit. :
: It was something my maturing

: self still needed time to grasp.

: Dinner with the folks still had the
: somewhat onerous understanding
: that dishes would bea chore after.
: Everyone showed up, and the

: future didn’t appear to be in any

: danger of switching thingson us. :
: This Thanksgiving was completely :
: different. :

For one, it was my first

: Thanksgiving as an adult. I have

escaped high school, graduated

: from Douglas, moved out on my

 

: own, and am completely self-

: sufficient financially. Whatever

: immature remnants of resentment
: [could bear towards my parents

: for chores and house rules no
longer exist. The last prominent

: but fragile bastion of childhood—
: dependence on my parents fora

: roof over my head—erased. I don’t
: pretend to have become a yogi

: overnight; I still have a long way to
: go in fully considering the world

asa whole. But the minor changes
have already done a world of good.

i] eagerly anticipate meals with

: family when I can make them. My
: relationship with my parents and
: my brother feels better than it has
: inyears.

This has also been my first

her mind began to fail, and Id still

: routinely watch my grandpa and
: his irons handle me with ease on
: the links. Her plucky spirit and

: his amusingly endearing phrases
(“sufficiently suffonsified” will

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: always be my go-to for being full)

: left an emotional crater I was quite
: unused to. It was easily the most

: difficult part of my short career in
: this life to date.

Their absence this

: Thanksgiving was painfully

: obvious, but in a strange way, not

: upsetting. It’s not that I don’t miss

: them—l always will—and it’s

: not that I haven't accepted their

: passing, but that their deaths

: have magnified what remains. We

: have asmall family. My mother’s

: parents are still alive and well. My

: mother and father show no signs of
: slowing down themselves. My aunt
: and uncle are similarly clicking

: along. And my brother is as able

: as 1 am.

: year that I’ve truly had to deal with :
: loss. Both of my grandparents on
: my father’s side passed away in

: the spring. It was unexpected, as
: | suppose it always is, to say the

: least. My grandmother, with the

: Guinness and Irish in her, had

: always been fit as a fiddle even as

So as we move past this bane

: of materialistic wants, for the first

: time I can say that I’m honestly

: and truly thankful. Thankful for

: every single remarkable person

: who allows me to bea part of their
: life, and for what those who have

: passed were, and always will, mean
; tome.

Danke danke,

wilh

Editor-in-Chief

@ theotherpress.ca

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