The first Thanksgiving in America was celebrated in 1620 in Massachusetts. It was a celebratory feast between the Europeans and the Native Americans.
I bet you learned that in school.
I learned from watching movies and TV shows about American schools. I remember watching “Addams Family Values,” with the scene where Wednesday destroys the summer camp Thanksgiving play.
I guess the only things that I actually know about Thanksgiving are that you eat a lot of food and say what you are grateful for.
Okay, let’s break this down.
Food
In the Indiana Daily Student newsroom, we have a big poster of a page that was printed by the New York Times, and it has this full Thanksgiving meal. I was talking to my editor and she explained what each food illustrated on the page was. A huge turkey was displayed in the middle with squash, cranberry sauce (God, this tiny fruit is so expensive in Brazil), corn, pumpkin pie and turkey stuffing surrounding it.
Now, America, I have an important question to ask you — why don’t you put turkey stuffing inside of the turkey? My previous knowledge about food tells me that “stuffing” belongs inside of another thing, like a chicken or a turkey. So it just seems weird to me that it’s more common to leave the turkey stuffing outside of the turkey and serve it as a side.
I’m not judging, don’t get me wrong. It is a genuine question. Back home people eat beans with bananas just because. We are all a bit weird.
Being thankful
I particularly enjoy this part. Back home during Christmas, my family and I would gather around and say what we enjoyed about the year and say our prayers (I’m not religious, but Grandma still wanted me to join hands).
This year, I guess I’ll be grateful for having things to be grateful for — if that makes sense.
I did a lot of different things in 2016. It was my first year after having graduated from high school, so I started working with a personal passion of mine — Model United Nations conferences. I also did a semester in a university back home and had some great personal growing while there. I met a nice guy who treats me well.
I spent a semester studying in a university in the United States, and with this managed to reevaluate my whole life. I learned that it was possible to enjoy my own company in certain social situations that I did not like to do alone, like going to the movies or having a coffee in Starbucks.
I got a job in a real newspaper and was able to get my stories printed and read by a lot of people. I also found a new passion — graphic design — and it’s one that I really hope to continue exploring in the future.
I got to meet incredible and inspiring people in a great variety of places. From work, with my bosses and colleagues, in classes and even in the Brazilian group that I go to on Fridays, who were struggling with life in a new country as much as I was. I learned that I am not alone. I can be if I want to, but in the end of the day, I’m not.
I am extremely thankful for all the experiences that I had this year, here and back home. I’ve always believed that life is made up of experiences and that I had to get out in the world to have some. I know that if I just stop for a minute and enjoy the leaves falling down from a tree, and think about no matter what happens, nature will continue to change and the world will continue to go round, I’ll be fine.
I’d like to wish every single one of you a happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you are always grateful for the experiences you are having now and the memories you made in the past, without worrying for what the future may hold.
