Dear xAndra,
I am writing to you today at 7:30AM, and it's still pitch black here in Cork. The sun doesn't come up until about 8:30 or later, and my old habits of waking up at 5 or 5:30 have been replaced with a later hour while waiting for the sun. Of course, not having to be at work at 8:30 has helped a bit. You're probably proud of me for my new sleeping-in habits, but don't be. I'm still waking up a few hours earlier than everyone else and going to bed many hours before. I'm still an old lady. (You know, one day I actually will be an old lady and then will I still be able to use that joke?)
I don't know what it's like in Pennsylvania, and you'll have to tell me what it's like in Virginia later this week. But in Ireland, it's getting mighty cold. Winter's coming so the rain, the perpetual drizzle, has stopped for a little while. Which is of course made me ecstatic so I keep running outside to frolic. Which of course makes me really cold. So it's a perpetual cycle of weather really, designed to keep sad little me inside.
This week is Thanksgiving! A fact of which I am sure you are very aware because you'll get a little break now until right before exams. We're cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner here for everyone. Well, my housemate is cooking the vast majority. I'm submitting some of Dad's stuffing and a couple of her friends are bringing some things, too. I'm a little apprehensive about the group dynamics, so cross your fingers for us. But who knows? People always say good food is bound to bring people together (so maybe just cross your fingers that we all bring good food?)
I know you're going to be missing a good homecooked Thanksgiving dinner. After a semester at college (and it doesn't change after many semesters), nothing sounds better than some good, old-fashioned traditions. There's not much I can tell you except to say that I understand how you feel. My freshman, my sophomore, all of my college years (even now) I have felt the same. And it's not so much that something changes back home when you move out. It's more a case that something about the way you're seeing home changes. We expect home to be a place of comfort and welcome, and when old traditions (things that honestly died years before and we didn't notice) don't align properly, we're hurt, disappointed, nostalgic, bitter.
My best advice (not that you asked for it) is to go home with a different attitude. As you near the front door, don't get ready to let everything go, all your problems and stress, and relax. If you walk through the door ready to collapse into a familiar place, you will quickly get distressed with the energy that meets you from excited family and friends, each with their own expectations. Instead, prepare for a new challenge. As you walk through the front door, turn on a different energy, the kind that exudes excitement for family and stories and fun. Because if you walk through the door with any expectations of traditions and comfort, they won't be met. Not because they aren't there, but because you've misremembered what those are in your time away. Walk through the door with no expectations except those you've made for yourself and you'll be pleasantly surprised with how comforting home and it's "new" traditions will be.
As for Thanksgiving brunch, you're heading to a free meal at a very classy joint with some amazing people. Have fun, you lucky duck ;) And just think of it this way: if you all are getting brunch and we're cooking dinner, we'll probably be having Thanksgiving at the same time, halfway around the world. xx
Love always,
SarleX
