Thanksgiving is a time when families come together. Whether they are families of blood or families of choice, that depends on the particular celebration. College friends go home with others who live closer. Children visit their families at home. Others just stay at school for the holiday.
One thing that I have learned is that family doesn't only have one definition. Family isn't only your parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. Family is those who you choose to include in your life as important people and a part of your community. I consider my close friends part of my family. I spent this Thanksgiving with my grandparents in Upstate New York. For them family includes both blood family and close friends.
A person doesn't just have one family either. I consider myself to have multiple families that are defined by the groups I am a part of and different times in my life. I have my nuclear family in California. I have my high school friend family. I have my Lehigh family and within that many others: my PSP family, my softball family, my first-year family.
Family is what we make of it. When I am at home, my relatives always come over for a big Thanksgiving feast. This usually includes my extended family. However, it also includes my cousins' friends or significant others who don't have anywhere else to go. Similar to that, my grandparents invited a friend who is from the Caribbean and has no family to celebrate the holiday with. There is one commonality among my family whether I am celebrating a holiday with my mom's side of the family or my dad's and whether I am on the west coast or east coast. We welcome all that are in a need of somewhere to go because the more the merrier!
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