My Thanksgiving

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

 ~Melody Beattie

In some ways, being abroad during Thanksgiving and the holidays has allowed me to step away from the consumerism that plagues the U.S. and instead reflect on what the holidays are actually supposed to be about.

This is not the first time I’ve been away for Thanksgiving. Yet every holiday I’m away, I’m in a different point in my life and often have a different outlook every time. Some holidays, I’ve prayed they pass by fast so that I can get home that much faster. While others, I enjoy the different cultural adaptations and see them not as a replacement for Thanksgiving or Christmas back home, but instead as a new experience.

As I do reflect on what I’m thankful for, I first have to stop and think how I got to where I am today. Ten years ago, I never thought I’d be living in New Delhi doing an internship as part of my Master’s degree. But knowing that I have supportive friends and family has allowed me to have the peace of mind to leave the country and set off on my own. Without my support system, I don’t know where I’d be. Through the roller coasters of living abroad, they have helped me through my struggles and have been the cheerleaders through my successes. Because when you take away the Christmas music being played on November 1^st and the shoppers scrambling to buy the “need to have” items, to me the holidays are about one thing. Being with the people that love and care for you unconditionally. No distance can take that sense of support away.