"Thanksgiving": A Family Drama?

It was the day before I’d be heading home for Thanksgiving. Up til this point, I’d sat through multiple presentations and lectures and turned in SO MANY assignments...it’d been a long semester.  I had TWO classes left. To say I was eagerly waiting to head back home is an understatement. It’s no secret that I love my family. So, with EVERY word the professor spoke it seemed as though the time was ticking MUCH too slowly. Randomly the professor asks, “Is anyone traveling for Thanksgiving?” Nearly every hand in the room went up. “Is anyone dreading going home?” he asked. To my surprise, in a class full of about 50 people, at least 15-20 hands went up. My mouth dropped. I couldn’t believe that THAT many people would DREAD going home. Getting home was literally the only thing on my mind!

When I was growing up, my parents always told me that my brothers and I were blessed to have a “drama free” family, but it wasn’t until the moment in that classroom that I got a glimpse of just how truly blessed I am.

Growing up my family and I always had HUGE family gatherings. My grandparents, some of my cousins, my parents, my uncles, and my aunts...(there’s a lot of us) would come together and eat and laugh....and eat. That was so normal to me. My extended family was so close that sometimes cousins called other cousins “aunts” and “uncle” cause...welll....IDK...we just didn’t know any difference. (Hahaha!)

To this day, not much has changed.

That’s why this Thanksgiving, I’m ESPECIALLY grateful for my family. 

Now, I’m not naive. No family is perfect, but I’m grateful that I was shielded from most of the “strife” and arguments that families can go through. 

When I step back and think of all the cookouts, Easter dinners, Christmas dinners and Thanksgiving dinners, I only remember the fun stuff. Of allll the many things, I can only recall...all of the good things....*cue Jhené Aiko*

It’s so cheesy to say you're grateful for your family, but like...I really am. I'm grateful that I have family to go to. See, I’m most grateful that, even though we’ve all grown up and our life situations have changed...people have gotten married, had babies, moved away, moved back, made good decisions, made terrible decisions, made REALLY terrible decisions...the love is still there. We can still come together and just GET ON EACH OTHER’S NERVES...and I mean that in a good way.

The Bible says in EVERYTHING give thanks...so it’s a daily thing for me....but today I’m just especially grateful for the people who knew me before I knew me, the people who are always proud of me, the people who I can see little (sometimes big) parts of myself in, the people who catch an attitude about the same stuff I do, the people who are willing to break out in a song at any moment, the people who make the best spades and “shade-throwing” partners, the people who make me laugh like NO OTHER, the people who remind me of just how trash I was at basketball (haha!), the people that are willing to sit and talk about anything (and I do mean ANYTHING), the people who always offer PERFECT imitations of other people,  the people who always remind me that I was a crybaby (has much changed, though?), the people who really love me...my family. 

*insert a big ole hug here*

Happy Thanksgiving, peeps!

[Also, I couldn't think of a title, so...yeah....]