Reflecting on Thanksgiving Day: I feel too grown up

This reflection is early but I did not want to wait until tomorrow or this weekend to post it because tomorrow I must awake at 4 am for work at 5am-- oh the joys of working in retail. And the rest of the weekend will fly by and then I will be back at AU on Sunday. Though, I can honestly say that I do not want to leave, and I have only been here one day. Maybe it is because of the fact that I haven't seen these people-- family, friends, and co- workers-- in so long, but it also reminds me of how easy life was and having the comforts of home all the time. But it is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder because it just makes me appreciate it all so much more. Thank goodness I will be able to come back in two more weeks. I will admit that 1st semester went by fast, but I expected that at the same time. There is always so much to do and I found myself having to plan everyday just so that I would not forget anything.

Today I found myself comparing this Thanksgiving to last year's, and geez so many things were different. First of all less relatives came and my boyfriend came instead. Also, just being back at home last night was weird. The first difference I noticed was that the ceiling in my house is so much lower than that of the dorms! So everything kind of felt smaller, though my room at home is definitely bringer than our dorm room. Speaking of my room, my mom cleaned it so it looks totally different! It needed a face lift though.

Anyways, I do not think that I am appropriately reflecting in this post so I will proceed to do more of that now. I think that the reason that history is so important, and that when Ambassador Quainton came to talk to us and he relayed that he studied history in grad and undergrad, because it is the most important way in which we feel as though we can predict the future. For instance, I loved this quote on Allie Cat's blog post: "It is interesting to note that many of the famous revolutions of history involve a dissolution and later reorganization of their country's military, including the French and Russian. Military and society are tied together- if one falls, so will the other." I think that she is correct in her comment, and it is true that future will contain repeats of the past. The way in which we move forward, like by dissolving the country's military, is by taking notes on what others in the past did. I love drawing parallels in my posts about my real life and the theoretical ideas which we talk about, and I am going to attempt to do so in this post as well.

Basically, being back at home flooded me with memories of the past. It was crazy how everything I did reminded me of the last time I was there, and at its core, I think that the reason for traditions and maintaining holidays is to remember the past and not forget what has happened. Holidays serve to remind us of our personal histories that make up our life, and act as a day of reflection in themselves-- an imaginary pause button. And as from learning from the past, we attempt to learn, though sometimes it is unsuccessful, from our past mistakes and what went wrong from holidays so that the bad traditions to not live on and the good ones sustain themselves. Just as disgruntled citizens desire to recreate their countries military to obtain power, so do we, ordinary citizens, attempt to learn from past mistakes and hold on to the good memories so that we can continue to reinvent and recreate our holidays and other silly/ sentimental traditions. Hope that makes sense and it is not too much of a stretch.

PS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING. This is one of my favorite traditions for today.