Thanksgiving

Almost everybody says that they are most thankful for their family, and I agree, they are the most important thing in my life. However I feel like they became especially important to me this Thanksgiving. I have never realized the comfort and joy they add to my Thanksgiving every year.


This year was the first Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from home. I flew down to Georgia for a week over break to spend the holiday with my boyfriend and his family. I bought my plane ticket, packed, and flew down there oblivious as to how I would feel Thanksgiving Day.


My boyfriend’s family did not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, but Friday. However, my family back home got together and ate turkey as planned on Thursday. On facebook that evening, I looked through their smiling pictures over and over again. As I flipped through the album time after time the feeling in the pit of my stomach grew more and more intense. I missed them badly. It was hard to believe that they had had such a perfectly normal and traditional family Thanksgiving without me.


The next day, Friday, was not as I had expected. The meal was wonderful, the people were all nice, but it didn’t feel like Thanksgiving as I thought it would. I thought that Thanksgiving was Thanksgiving no matter who you spent it with.


It was then that I realized that Thanksgiving isn’t about the good food and talking around the table. It’s about being with those you love and who love you. It’s about valuing your family, what you are most thankful for.

College?

Linda Lee’s essay “The Case Against College” describes her experience with her son going to college. She found that the experience of college did nothing to help her son find a productive direction for his life. So, she pulled him out of college and he got a job. Through working various jobs, she saw her son grow up, mature, and find ambition in his life where he hadn’t before.


She claims that college isn’t for everybody. I agree. Americans stress a college education and while it may be good for some, it will not benefit others. Everybody is different. Some find success in getting a college degree and using that to obtain a stable career. Others have no need of a degree. As she mentioned, Bill Gates dropped out of college, and he is one of the most successful men in America.


I have known many other people in my own personal experience that even dropped out of high school and still managed to work towards success. However, I believe that this approach is not for everybody. It seems that going to college and getting a degree is taking the safe road. Those who choose to go out on a limb and not go to college risk failure. But if we all take the well worn, beaten path, then nobody would ever rise above the crowd to risk greatness now would they?

Fallacies

I often use fallacies when in an argument. Often we don’t even notice we are. However, fallacies often sway our audience to believe what we are saying, whether it be a sound argument or not. When put in a situation where we feel like we are backed up into a corner, such as an argument, we often resort to illogical conclusions to get ourselves out of a certain situation. On the other hand, even when we don’t feel threatened, but simply want to convince, we still use fallacies.

I believe that my most commonly used fallacy is basing my argument off of something somebody might have said, assuming it is true. How often do we all do that?

So many times, since I was young, I have argued using the word of my siblings as a tool to prove my point. “Well Susanna said that Mom said that I could have the candy!” often clears one’s slate. Susanna could have been lying, but that doesn’t seem to matter when the attention is shifted solely on you. The person who is listening doesn’t think about whether you were lied to, they are thinking only that you were granted permission. Using this fallacy has often won me arguments, especially as a child and I think that many other’s can say the same.

Reading

Reading has always been a favorite hobby of mine. I love snuggling up in my pajamas, sipping hot tea and letting the text manipulate my imagination, taking me to places I’ve never been, seeing things I’ve never seen. I love the art contained in literature. I love the words that fit together perfectly to create such vivid color, such thriving emotion in the reader.


I love reading books by authors who create intense descriptions in their writings. I love when an author takes a whole page to describe a meal, making me hungry just reading about it, or an author who describes a river so intricately that I feel like I’m standing right there, my legs wet and cold from the rushing water, my feet aching from the jagged rocks underfoot. I love to feel as though I’m right there in the action, lost in the plot, feeling, seeing, and hearing everything that is being written.


I tend to stay away from romance novels and mysteries. I never buy into the fairy-tale romance and mysteries are way too suspenseful for my taste. I love books that make you think deeply about life. I love books that take me to places I have never even thought about experiencing. I love books that when I am finished reading the last page, I feel changed.