How Thanksgiving Turned Out :)

Yesterday morning, I woke up before the sun. I got to spend my first couple hours awake with my lovely Corps Member Kylie on the easy, relaxing, and even-a-little beautiful drive to St. Louis. The conversation was as lush as it always was. I’m so grateful that I have someone on my team that I truly can call a friend. I was definitely reminded yesterday how wonderful friendship is…especially when my opportunity to entertain that relationship is so rare lately. I’m grateful for all the friends I’ve made in the past months, in my years of college, in Take it SLO, through Cal Poly’s Orientation Programs, and the majority of my life spent in Lake Forest.

After dropping my Corps Member off at the airport, I accidentally got a little lost in St. Louis. “Those with a bad sense of direction see more of the world” was my mantra yesterday. I walked around the city and was able to take in a whole bunch of the Thanksgiving Day Parade floats and wished nearly every stranger I passed by a “Happy Thanksgiving”. Originally, I had hoped to watch the parade, get some food, maybe go see a movie, or go to church…but then I realized that I didn’t want any of that at all. I wanted my family. I spent almost my entire time in St. Louis on the phone with my mom at the beautiful park near the famous St. Louis Gateway arch. The view was gorgeous and the conversation was as if my mother was sitting directly across from me. To be quite honest, I couldn’t have imagined a better use of my day. I really just needed a chance to be away from my Ameri-life, to be outside, and to connect with my family.

The best part of my day…is that the beauty of it didn’t stop when I left St. Louis. On the ride home, my Dad’s, brother’s, and my favorite Christmas song came on the radio: Santa Claus is Coming to Town by The Boss. I blasted the radio, treated the steering wheel as a drum set, and sang my lungs out. It was as if my two favorite men were right beside me.

When I returned to the hotel, all my Corps Members were hanging out…AND they were cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We all indulged in a painfully filling feast of ham, green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, and stuffing (but I didn’t eat this item, of course).  They even joined me in my Conmy Family tradition: watch a Christmas movie J Luckily my Corps Member is as big a fan of Elf as I am…we pre-emptively quoted the movie the entire time.

I think it is safe to say that I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Considering I was away from the people I love most…I had the absolute best day I could have had. I am incredibly grateful for my ability to be positive throughout the day, for the extensive conversation I had with my mother, for my caring and supportive Corps Members, and for my family for instilling so many traditions of love in my heart.  I’m thankful, too, more than I ever could have imagined if I wasn’t in this program, that I even have a home and family to miss.

So thank you, again, to my family for showing me so much love throughout my life. I am blessed to have a life I miss so terribly. I wouldn’t miss it if I wasn’t so in love with it.

I hope everyone had a memorable Thanksgiving and truly gave thanks this year. Don’t forget to tell the ones you love just how much you do. I promise it is as good to give love as it is to receive it.

Happy Holidays, everyone J

p.s. 24 days until I get to hug my mom, dad, and brother and sleep in my own bed! THE ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME! J