On Saturday I got back to Philly for Thanksgiving break. I went to bed somewhat early, got up the next morning, drank beers in a parking lot until it was time to go in the Birds game, and got home and slept for sixteen hours. That was my sort of settling in period, and now I feel like I’m really in the groove of Thanksgiving break, which is why I want to talk about how incredibly overrated it is.
Let’s start with this, though. I love Thanksgiving break. If I didn’t have this time off, I genuinely don’t know if I’d be able to keep going to class. It’s awesome to see my family and boys from home again, and like I said, it is really a much-needed break from the academic world. But with all that being said, it’s still really overrated.
It’s really not that long
As much as it seems like a whole long, glorious week of doing nothing in the time leading up to it, Thanksgiving break really isn’t that long at all. I mean, I have a week off, and two of those days will be spent driving across the state. One of the days is dedicated to you listening to your “woke” aunt crucify your grandfather, who doesn’t even know the definition of politically incorrect, for calling that weird-o cousin of yours a “Nancy boy.” And some people don’t even have the full week. For a lot of people break doesn’t start until classes end on Tuesday, which makes enduring a QAnon argument while you’re trying to get second helpings of stuffing that much worse.
You still end up having to do some work
In your head, Thanksgiving break is always going to be a stretch of sleeping until the afternoon, eating terribly, and hopefully having a few beers, but if you actually commit to no schoolwork over break, you end up wildly behind and hating every second of the time you have left back at school. That’s why I’ll actually be attempting to do a few productive things this break, and I have to be honest, it’s really pissing me off.
Thanksgiving can be brutal
I typically have a pretty chillaxed Thanksgiving, but on some level, everyone has a bit of a brutal time at Thanksgiving – even if it’s just for a few minutes. Having to pretend to care when you talk to the aunt and uncle you don’t like, hiding beers from disapproving family members, being put to work in some way when you just want to sit back and watch football, or even just being stuck at the same end of the table as people who aren’t yet able to take a shit without having someone help them wipe their asses can all be terrible ways to spend five hours of your break. Those are some of the tamer examples of things that can go wrong, but you get the idea.
You get fat
Don’t have much else to say. I anticipate gaining at least five pounds this week. It kind of sucks.
So yeah, I would argue that Thanksgiving break is quite overrated. But even as much as I think it gets way too much credit, it’s so unbelievably necessary that I can’t even be upset about it. Would I like it to be all of the things that people say it is and more? Absolutely, but I’ll take whatever I can get at this point. My drive to be a productive student fully reached zero on Friday, so this couldn’t have come at a better time.
