Thanksgiving is this Thursday and as families are getting ready to celebrate, college students are approaching finals week. If you think we're excited for this holiday, think again.
With finals looming, the break from school and time with family and loved ones isn't the same. The only thing I'm excited about is that Thanksgiving food coma.
The problem isn't the holiday, but the reality we're living — we're not excited for Thanksgiving break anymore.
A rising trend among young adults, specially those in college, is hosting a friends-giving. Karla Gonzalez, a third-year ASU student majoring in biomedical science, will be hosting a friends-giving for many of her classmates who are out-of-state students or don't typically celebrate this holiday.
"We're hosting this friends-giving because some of our friends are international students that don't celebrate the holiday. It's not part of their culture and I know that they're stressed about school," said Gonzalez who is also an out-of-state student from Texas.
"I'm excited about the food," said Shreya Nandy a sophomore ASU student from India.
We stuff our face with food, and when you think you can't anymore, it's time for dessert. On Thanskgiving day, the average American consumes 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat. Having an unbalanced diet, as well as lack of exercise through out the year, can have serious effects to your health, such as increasing the chances of heart attack. In Arizona, the Banner University Medical Center Phoenix normally sees between a 25 and 30 percent increase in heart patients on Thanksgiving day.
This holiday is the toughest for highly skilled procrastinators (most of us). Although you have two days off school, you have "take-home" exams, extra-credit assignments and you have to start studying for finals or that final project you should've been working on all semester but you haven't started.
Mukesh Bollinen, an ASU graduate student, says he doesn't have any plans. "We need a break every month, but for Thanksgiving I would much rather work on school work because finals are coming up," he said.
If you have a big family dinner, the conversation about college is unavoidable. Whether it's your uncle that always has "a little too much booze" or your single, successful, wanderlust-driven aunt, there's always somebody that expects you to have your future figured out (although you barely have your semester together).
Family — can't live with them, can't live without them. As much as we love them, they usually tend to make things harder, and holidays aren't the exception.
Forget about the things we hate and cause unavoidable stress; Thanksgiving should be fun. Whether you're having a family dinner, a friends-giving or just meeting with your residence hall community, it shouldn't be a time of stress.
If you didn't work out and the thought of overeating troubles you, work-out the next day, or look for healthier options. If school has been hectic and you're worried about your GPA — eat some turkey!
If other's expectations from you are really high, remember they can expect all they want, but it's your future and you can only truly figure it out one day at a time, a semester at a time, and one big full plate of turkey at a time.
It's all going to be fine. Take a day off and enjoy the holidays.
Reach the columnist at cmsanti1@asu.edu or follow @santiagoc_17 on Twitter.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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