Every week, Thursday catches me by surprise; it seems like time is moving so much faster than I ever thought possible, and now there are only three weeks left until I’m on my way back home for the holidays! I love my time at Wellesley, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to being back in Iowa with my family. Today is a day where I miss them a little more than I usually do.
If this were a normal year, I would have flown home either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and been picked up by my dad at O’Hare for the three and a half hour drive from Chicago back to Cedar Rapids. I would have spent half of Wednesday sleeping in my own bed and the rest of it baking butterhorn rolls and cinnamon rolls for the next day with my mom, catching my family up on everything that has happened at Wellesley so far. My little sister and I would sing Christmas songs off-key, my brother would tell me all about the new video games he was playing, and I’d get to see my nephew, Leo, walk, which is a new skill he’s mastered since I last saw him! The next day, my whole family- aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, you name it!- would have gathered together at my Papa Larry and Grandma Ruth’s house to eat, talk, and play Kahoot! If the weather was nice, we might even have a Thanksgiving kickball game, and after dessert I would say an early goodbye to head to my Grandma Terry’s house up in Story City, Iowa for the weekend, where the two of us would watch cheesy Hallmark movies and set up her Christmas tree.
A baking picture sent by my Grandma Ruth, though this is Christmas baking, not Thanksgiving preparations!
I miss all of the little things, like finding my Dad’s childhood ornaments buried in a box from my grandma’s basement and battling my cousins in an UNO tournament, but most of all I’m really missing the sense of togetherness. Thankfully, even in a COVID year- and while I’m a thousand miles away- we’re finding ways to stay close to one another! I write letters to my family every week, and today we’re holding a virtual gathering over Zoom. I’ll also be Facetiming my Grandma Terry this afternoon so the two of us can talk and catch up just like we would have if I spent Thursday evening sitting on her couch instead of on the computer in my dorm. This year has been hard, and it really has taken a lot away from us, but I’m learning to adjust and to find ways to work around all of the muck.
More importantly than Thanksgiving, today is also the National Day of Mourning for Indigenous communities across the United States. Before coming to Wellesley, I was incredibly ill-informed about issues affecting the Indigenous population, and there’s still so much I have to learn, but I’m very grateful to Wellesley’s Native American Student Association for all of the labor they have put into educating the Wellesley community. I encourage you to read their educational materials- linked here– and to take the time today to learn about the myth of Thanksgiving, as well as do some research into the land you are currently occupying and who it truly belongs to. This is a holiday I have some pretty strong emotional ties to, but I’m learning to acknowledge the privilege involved in that. For me, this has always been a day where I can give thanks, because I was ignorant of what it really meant; for Native Americans, this day is an annual reminder of their suffering. Especially in a time of COVID, when the virus is hitting Indigenous communities at a disproportionate rate and cases from those communities are being excluded from COVID data, we need to reprioritize and choose justice over tradition. For me, Thanksgiving has never been tied to the atrocities committed when the pilgrims landed on this continent, and that’s because I have had the privilege not to acknowledge that aspect. Despite all of the good memories I have tied to the holiday, I need to think beyond Thanksgiving, and to find a way to still gain that feeling of connection and togetherness I’ve felt on that day from other places. I’m not sure what the answer is yet, but I’m finally moving in the right direction.
Sending you joy,
A
P.S. I hope you enjoy the cover image- it’s me and my cousin Helen several holidays ago!
Wellesley College occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary unceded lands of the Massachusett tribe. We recognize that we are on stolen land, and we extend our gratitude to the many Indigenous peoples who have rich histories here, including the Massachusett, Wampanoag, and Nipmuc nations, for their ongoing stewardship of the land. We commit to recognizing, supporting, and advocating for the sovereignty of the Indigenous Nations whose traditional territories are in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as for the many Indigenous people who live, work and study in Wellesley and Massachusett. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and commit to holding Wellesley College more accountable to the needs of the Indigenous peoples. We are grateful for the language behind this land acknowledgement, which was written by the Native American Student Association at Wellesley (NASA).