Students eager to spend holiday with loved ones

When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, no one could have foreseen 500 years of traditional Thanksgiving feasts and ritualized gorging with family and friends alike.\nProclaimed by President Lincoln in 1863 as a national holiday, Thanksgiving is often celebrated as a family reunion around the buffet-style dinner table. Although the traditions, rituals and customs of America's annual Thanksgiving holiday vary from one family unit and Hoosier community to another, most students are thankful for the opportunity to spend time with family, friends and overdue school work. \nExemplifying the need for reading and writing instead of forking mouthfuls of food down his throat, senior Nathan Dolbee, who is returning home to Evansville for a Thanksgiving feast, said he is looking forward to lots of good food and the opportunity to spend time with his mates.\n"I'm thankful for my friends, my family obviously," Dolbee said. "I'm really not getting a break: I have a presentation and a paper due (today); I have a couple of take-home quizzes; and I have an exam when I get back. It's going to suck, trying to get all that in while trying to see everybody."\nBecause this year's Thanksgiving affair falls weeks after a national election, some students can't help but mix politics into their November food fare, which includes the traditional buffet of white and dark turkey meat, stuffing, hand-mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, Jell-O molds of all flavors, colors or shapes and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. \nJunior Megan Sinnott, who is returning home to the Chicago area, said Thanksgiving is an important time for her since she will be returning home for the first time this school year.\n"My mom makes a really good green bean casserole and cranberry sauce," Sinnott said. "I'm grateful to be at IU: It's a good school, I love my job and I love my friends. I'm looking forward to only four more years of (President) George Bush. We have to look on the positive side and be grateful another election is right around the corner."\nSophomore Amanda Hodges, who is returning home to Newburgh, Ind., said she looks forward to spending her Thanksgiving break in the comfort of her family. \n"My great grandma has made cinnamon rolls every year," Hodges said. "They're huge, homemade and really good. I have a lot of school work to do, so basically I get to eat and that's it."\nJeremy Wise, a first year MBA student, said he is looking forward to a Thanksgiving week of better weather, mountains and the opportunity to speak face to face with some old friends.\n"I'm thankful the country hasn't had any disasters in the last year," Wise said. "I hope that things calm down internationally over the next year; I hope that all the countries in the world can get along better. I'm sure it can get either a lot better or a lot worse."\nApplying fantasy, fairy tale, make-believe and mythology to national holidays, some students offered twisted interpretations of the origin of Thanksgiving within America's proud nationalist heritage. Sinnott, who was born in the "next town over" from Plymouth, said Thanksgiving means something different for different people. \n"I've been to the Mayflower and Plymouth -- been to the wax museums," Sinnott said. "Thanksgiving celebrates the first feast of the pilgrims and the (American) Indians -- all that stuff. The pilgrims were here; the Indians helped them out, brought them corn. They ate it, and the Indians and the pilgrims got along forever and ever."\nRegardless of whether students believe in pilgrims and American Indians sharing turkey legs and cranberry sauce, Wise said his Thanksgiving feast in Los Angeles will involve a little more fusion than traditional family folks -- more dinner party-esq. \n"People were looking for an excuse to eat some good food and have a big party; to rejoice, before it got to cold," Wise said. "I can sympathize with that. Who knows? 2000 years from now, Thanksgiving might be the Last Supper." \n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.