Complaining About Thanksgiving

By Lawrence Pei

Thanksgiving can be best described as the day where families get together to scream at one another with their mouths full of food and attempting to show their distaste over another’s actions over the course of days, weeks, and years. As family members begin to pile into the living room, oftentimes they will turn on one another over differences in viewpoints varying from political to touchy subjects. It seems like even a common opener intended to start small talk inevitably becomes a screaming match.

The reason for Thanksgiving is written in the name, to be thankful. However, many people have trouble with this due to hardships in life. When looking back at your day, week, or year, one can’t help noticing all the bad things in life as well. When life gets out of control, it’s hard to see the good through the bad.

With Thanksgiving being one of the biggest holidays, families all rush to the nearest grocery store in anticipation for the upcoming event. However, as they gather for the feast, it turns out that even with all the gluttony, much is still left following seconds, thirds, and occasionally even fourths. Even as family members attempt to give their best Homer Simpson impressions, much food still goes to waste to the point where the trash can inside our homes become a graveyard for meat, veggies and dessert. Instead, we should focus not on attempting to gorge ourselves to death, but to think about places in the world where people have a lack of food to survive, and hold back in trying to stuff oneself.

In conclusion, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, it is crucial that we reflect upon both the good and the bad things that occur in our lives. In our age, we all face our own challenges that requires help with others. However, while we should remain thankful for family and friends, their belief that their criticism can positively benefit us is incorrect and only causes things to get worse. Subsequently, instead of solely being focused upon one side of the extreme, the concept of Thanksgiving should not be focused upon the good and bad but the events that happen in our lives and how we can benefit from them.