Thanksgiving is, and always has been, my favorite holiday. The confluence of football, food, and family make it a holiday like no other. As a child, the day started with football, as my hometown had two high schools that played one another every year on Thanksgiving morning. The whole town came out, and I would run around with my friends and root for Lyman Hall High School – the school that was on my side of town. Following the game, we would make our way home to a relative’s house, where we would pile in too many people and eat too much food, and I would listen to stories about family folklore.
As I have gotten older, much has changed about how I celebrate the holiday, but the trinity of football, food, and family are still the focus. Now, however, food and family take center stage, with football games playing in the background throughout the day.
While it may seem that the constants of football, food and family are what make my Thanksgiving celebrations so special to me. In actuality, my love for Thanksgiving is rooted in connection. The rituals of football, turkeys, and Grandma J’s apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar are just that, rituals that facilitate connection from year to year and person to person. I am incredibly grateful and thankful to be so deeply connected to my family and friends, and for me, Thanksgiving provides that connection in ways that other holidays do not.
At The Beech Hill School, I have tried to create a community where our students, faculty and parents can feel a similar depth of connection. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, BHS has been welcoming alumni back to school for several years now. This year, Ms. Fries, Mr. Arruda, Ms. England, and Mr. Holt helped me to welcome back over 30 recent BHS graduates. Our alumni are off doing great things at a number of different schools, each leading very exciting lives away from BHS. However, when they returned, they were able to reconnect with one another, with their former teachers, and to the school. The joy that permeated our campus last Monday was something to witness.
This year it is those connections – with my actual family and with my BHS family, for which I give thanks. I am an extremely fortunate individual!
I hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!