What to Do When You’re Alone for Thanksgiving

Whether you’re staying at school for Thanksgiving because your family lives too far away to justify a trip, you have to work, or you just plain don’t want to go home, you are going to find yourself with plenty of downtimes. Here are some ideas on what to do with your time during your five-day weekend:

1. Get ahead on your reading/studying for finals.

The responsible thing to do with all of this new time on your hands would be to catch up on all the school work that you’ve been running behind on or even get ahead on your work. That way, when finals come rolling around you won’t be panicking yourself into a frenzy. The due dates for your term papers are closer than they appear and finals are sneaking up at lightning speed. Unfortunately, we both know that you probably aren’t actually going to do this, so, that brings us to the second thing you should do on this mini-break from school.

2. Binge the show you’ve been putting off.

We all have that one TV show that’s been sitting on our list on Netflix for months that we haven’t gotten around to watching yet. We look at the show and know with all of our hearts that if we start watching we are going to be head over heels in love with it. But, the commitment of actually starting at season one of six fills us with so much anxiety that we just haven’t been able to do it because we know we don’t have the self-control to know when it’s time to cut ourselves off. Since you won’t have classes in the morning you won’t have to worry about how late you go to sleep or how hard you crash after. 

3. Treat yourself to your favorite food.

Just because you probably won’t be pigging out on the traditional Thanksgiving feast doesn’t mean that you can’t treat yourself to an awesome meal. You have the capability of having yourself a Thanksgiving meal made entirely out of the food you enjoy. This year, you won’t have to pretend that you love your aunt’s cranberry sauce or your grandma’s Jello salad mold (if you don’t know what a Jello salad is and haven’t been force-fed a slice every major holiday you live a very lucky life). Do you want a bunch of sushi for Thanksgiving dinner? You can do that. Do you want an entire box of stuffing to yourself? Welcome to the club: you can do that. Do you want three burritos? Don’t let your dreams be dreams.

4. Pick back up that hobby you dropped.

When the semester really picks up we all have a tendency of suddenly dropping things that we really enjoy because of stress, school work, and the fact that it is so much easier to just scroll through Instagram than stitch a patch. Now that time is yours for the taking you have the ability to pick these things back up. You can finally finish that video game you started in September or add another foot onto that scarf you were crocheting. You could even finish reading that book that’s just been sitting on your bedside table for the past two months.

5. Clean out your closet.

The seasons have changed and with them, so has your wardrobe. Even though we’re in Florida, there isn’t a huge need anymore for your summer clothes with winter being right around the corner. In addition to that, the winter clothes you wore last year may not be of the same style that you plan on rocking this time around, so, a change may be needed.

6. Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This is low-key my favorite part of Thanksgiving. I love watching all the performers on the float, all the musical numbers from Broadway shows, and Santa coming in clutch at the end to remind me that I no longer can be shamed for blasting my Christmas tunes. Best of all, the only thing required to keep this tradition going is either a TV with cable or a computer that can get on the internet. 

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