A Series of Firsts: My First Thanksgiving in the U.S.

A Series of Firsts: My First Thanksgiving in the U.S.

After a couple of months of being away from home, having passed my first midterms season (successfully, thankfully), and wearing many, MANY layers to keep warm in the cold Chicago weather, my homesickness levels had hit an all-time high. I couldn’t concentrate in my school work, as I kept thinking in how much I missed the warmth of my city and seeing the sun everyday. My mood had started to change pretty easily, especially if there was bad weather. In However, missing my family was what affected me the most: I used to be really affected by not being able to see them everyday. The fact that many of the people I knew (who were domestic students, obviously) had gone home for Fall Break or had spent Family Weekend in late September with their family did not help: all I kept thinking was “that could be me, if only I weren’t in a different country.” Other international students like me had to plan other things so that we wouldn’t be overwhelmed by homesickness on days like these. Distance and had time had started to take a toll on me, physically and emotionally. Thankfully, my mom and my sister were on their way to Chicago bringing the cure for my low-motivation levels: love and a new pajama set.

It made my heart so happy to see my mom and my sister in flesh and bone after so long, hugging them felt like it was the very first time (that’s how long it had been). And it made me even happier that I would be spending my first Thanksgiving abroad with part of my family. Back in Guatemala, my family gets together every year to have a Thanksgiving dinner, but it was nothing like the Thanksgiving experience that I had learned about in movies or TV shows as I grew up. Thus, the moment my mom and my sister picked me up from Loyola the day before Thanksgiving, Operation Thanksgiving was on its way. My mom had planned most of the week for us, and to be honest, it really was going to be a break for me. We toured the city on Wednesday, paid the Bean a visit and wandered around for most of the day; I was just so happy that we were together again. On Thanksgiving day, we woke up early to go to the McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, (nothing like the Macy’s Parade that I’m going to attend this week, but that I’ll leave for another post) which was very fun to watch: I found interesting that marching bands from other States had come all the way to Chicago to play at the Parade, and wondered what it must be like coming to the Windy City to be in the Parade. Children were dancing, trumpets were sounded, and everybody around us seemed to be happy. After that, we headed to the Millenium Park Ice Skating Rink, where we danced on ice by Cloud Gate for a couple of hours. Dinner was not your typical Thanksgiving dinner: as we didn’t have in which to cook our meal, my mom made a reservation at (wait for it) a steakhouse. It was that night that I realized that it wasn’t really the dinner that made the holiday, but rather being able to spend such a holiday with my loved ones. That’s what I the most thankful that night: my family, and all the friends that I had made at Loyola. The rest of our weekend was uneventful, but I was happy to feel refreshed and feel the love once more.

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