My First American Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the festival for harvest and being grateful for being blessed in the past year. This is my first Thanksgiving in America. As an exchange student from China, I am really excited about this special festival, because we actually don’t have a special festival for being thankful.

There are many international students like me who don’t have to go back to our family to enjoy holiday; either we choose to travel or stay. We actually have a really long holiday, from Wednesday to Sunday. Some of my friends even chose to travel to the East Coast with friends. For me, I stayed. The reason why I stayed is some of my American friends invited me to their house to enjoy the real, local Thanksgiving.

Getting together with friends for Thanksgiving has become such a precious memory for me, and I don't regret staying (local). Maybe I miss the beautiful scene of traveling, but it has been filled with all kinds of Thanksgiving food and laughter. Before the meal, we truly prayed for everyone and everything we have now. I was feeling how great we need to cherish the moments we have in everyday life. Being grateful is actually the core value of this festival and it gave me more meanings than just traveling.

After the days surrounded by the nice smelling of pumpkin and turkey, here comes the “Dead Week.” Have you recovered from the holiday and are you ready for finals?

~ From an SAF Student Correspondent