...And a Happy Thanksgiving To You

Every Thanksgiving has been an adventure in some sort of way in my family. For years and years, we always invited people over who had nowhere else to go. It was always a strange mix of the young and the old, the young bringing a vivacious energy to the table and the old sharing stories of their long lives well lived. The past four years have been a collaberation of three close families and whoever might be attatched to those families.
Over the years, we have gained spouses and children and many others. Friends from work, roommates, and back to the beginning: the people with nowhere to go.
I love watching the group grow and become closer, yet still welcoming. But this year was bittersweet for me. As I sat at the table watching all the people and thinking of times years ago when all the boys had bowl cuts and the girls wanted to drink out of goblets to seem grown up, I realized that this was my last Thanksgiving as a high schooler. Soon, I'll be just like the others who I have watched go before me. Soon, I will be the college student who comes home only for the holidays. I'll be on my own, and it instills some fear into my heart.
Can I handle being out on my own? Can I really be going to college? I am constantly questioning myself and I can hardly believe it's true, but it is. My days of sneaking a bite of pie crust from the Thanksgiving pie before it goes in the oven are becoming shorter and shorter. Pretty soon, I'll be a grown up just like the rest of them. But I'm always comforted by the fact that I don't have to be first and that I always have wise people to follow.
That is what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the influences and relationships in my life. The people who desperately want to know what's going on in my chaotic life, those who want to share every memory with me, and even those who watch my every move. It's all a form of love and joy and without those, I am nothing. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday and I hope that it means as much to you as it does to me, because to me, Thanksgiving is what makes the world go 'round.