Thanksgiving break is approaching quickly, and when Jumbos return to Tufts after the holiday stuffed with turkey and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes, the rush for the end of the year will begin. But what do Tufts students actually do during their abbreviated vacation?
Most students are going home to spend time with family and friends. "I'm going home to Connecticut to have Thanksgiving with my close friends who moved away who are coming to visit," senior Hillary Amster said.
"I'm going home and going to Thanksgiving dinner in New Hampshire at my uncle's house - I always go with my parents and my sister to my uncle's house," junior Liz Copeland said.
For some students, just getting home is a production as big as Thursday cooking. "The first thing for Thanksgiving is coordinating rides to get my siblings and friends in the Boston area back to New Jersey," senior Aaron Goldman said.
Thanksgiving is often the first time students go home since they left in September: "When I was a freshman, it was the first time I had gone home for the year, and it was great. I was having fun, but I was ready to go home, too," Copeland said.
For juniors going abroad in the spring, spending time with family and friends at home is particularly significant. "When I was a freshman, going home was less exciting, but since I'm going abroad in the spring, it's much more important for me to see everyone," junior Erica Popovsky said.
One sophomore who hails from Tokyo, Japan, is going to a friend's house in New York to experience her second Thanksgiving: "My friend's dad's girlfriend is going to cook a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for us," Anna Ogawa said.
"I definitely wish I could go home for the break, but in Japan, it would just be an excuse to go home, because it's not a holiday there," Ogawa added.
Some Jumbos look forward to yearly traditions in addition to the big dinner. "Every year on Thanksgiving, my dad and I go on a long walk with our dogs and pick up trash. We've been doing that my whole life," Amster said.
The overwhelming sentiment from students is that whether or not people actually "give thanks" during the holiday, at its core, the holiday is still about family. "I think Thanksgiving is more about family and seeing people that you haven't seen in a long time," Popovsky said.
Although, for one student, that sappiness isn't appropriate: "I think Thanksgiving is more of an excuse for the whole family to be forced to get together," Goldman said.
