It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The decorations are out, the weather has changed and the family is gathered. Do you have a guess?
Trust me, it’s not Christmas. It’s not even Easter, or your sister’s sweet 16 with 20 screaming pubescent girls running around you talking about boys.
It’s Thanksgiving: every university and college student’s favourite holiday.
Not only is it the first time most hard-working students get a chance to go home and take a break, they also have a chance to have the most glorious thing on Earth: food.
Beautiful, bountiful, scrumptious homemade food that didn’t come from a can, precooked, packaged or made of the leftover soon-to-be moulding food in the back of your residence fridge.
My first piece of advice to you, especially those who are in first year, when you step foot inside your house, eat. In fact, eat a lot.
Eat everything in sight and don’t be afraid of your mother saying that you’re going to become fat. We all know this is false because your next good meal won’t be for another two and a half months.
That’s a painfully long time to wait until we have another scrumptious meal.
So when you sit down for your Thanksgiving dinner, or for your first family meal in a month, or find something so delicious in your fridge that it needs to be eaten immediately, savour it. This is important because it’s not coming back.
Pigging out during these holidays is okay despite what anyone tells you. In a way, it is considered binge eating, but when you are faced with the threat of malnutrition in terms of what is offered on campus or in your house, it doesn’t really matter.
My personal recommendation is that you should just eat everything you enjoy and not really care about eating too much or having to walk it off.
Another major piece of advice is to make use of all of the plastic or Tupperware containers in your house and bring back to Waterloo copious amounts of home-cooked food.
The next time you go home for a good meal, especially a meal like Thanksgiving turkey, will probably not be until there’s snow on the ground and you’re stress free after exams.
So use everything you have to bring back every type of food that you can eat for the next few weeks. And do not share.
Relish in the good food. Not only will it make you healthier and happier but you’ll appreciate being home so much more than you did thirty days ago when your parents told you, that you were an annoying person.
Happy Thanksgiving Laurier! I expect to see your fridges full of white meat, apple crumbly, cranberries and pumpkin pie when you return.
