Justice Graham, Contributing Writer

As I go through my every day life, bogged down with the mundane routine of work, class, and extracurricular activities. With the everyday concerns of food, money and a social life, I truly forget how to be thankful.

One forgets about all the things a person has to truly rejoice about and as Thanksgiving rolls around, I begin to think about how thankful I should be for all the things life has given me.

I think one of the things people forget to be thankful for, and they should be reminded more often, are memories. The memories that make you laugh quietly to yourself and the ones that can make you look back and remember certain events.

Thanksgiving brings back a lot of memories for me. It’s always the time where my family seemed to be happiest. The holidays can bring out the best and the worst in people and I was fortunate enough to have a family where they were always at their best.

Before my teenage years hit, Thanksgiving seemed to be just as grand as Christmas was to my family. My grandmother would start cooking before the sun rose in the west. My grandfather would then start drinking a few hours later.

She created a good ol’ southern Thanksgiving with what seemed to be nothing. She had cornbread stuffing, potato salad, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, home made rolls, deviled eggs and pecan pie. Needless to say, a lot of starch and butter.

The women all gathered in the kitchen. My grandmother always reminding my mom that she made the pistachio pudding just for her and that my mother should be grateful. Which made my mother have a glass of wine glued to her hand.

The men fried the turkey. They all seemed to get a thrill from standing around a frying bird, in a circle, drinking beer and saying no more than two words to each other.

We then would all come together and say grace and eat till we passed out.

These memories are what make me smile and make me really love to be around people.

My memories of the holidays never seemed to be bad. They give me comfort as I set foot on a path of my own.

As a person gets older, they start forging ahead and they have to make their own traditions. Their own memories without their family because family changes too.

As the holiday season begins and before I get wrapped up in presents, decoration, food, traveling and finals, it’s good to take a step back and give thanks for all the memories I have.

Memories make us who we are and I am thankful for that every day.