Turkey Lurkey Time

In my family, Thanksgiving is a time for patriotism and having lobster and crabs.

Growing up, my family had traditional American Thanksgiving exactly one time. My dad had bought a ham home one year (from work) and after some pestering on my part (naturally), my sisters and my mom finally used our oven. In Asian households, ovens are used for storage.

So my sisters and my mom prepared everything the way I always imagined it, the honey-glazed ham, the mashed potatoes and gravy, the fall vegetables (a medley of corn, sweet potatoes, carrots - orange and yellows). And we also had an Vietnamese vegetable soup as a palette cleanser. The ultimate fusion.

Then after, the clean-up was so heinous that my family has never prepared Thanksgiving dinner in quite this way since. This year, my family back in California went out for seafood, a yearly tradition.

Now, drunk off of turkey and too many glasses of champagne, it's allowed me to be a bit introspective about the holiday, the first time I'm away from home. Yet I'm still able to have a real Thanksgiving, courtesy of my sister and my brother-in-law, and some in-law relatives who live in the Hamptons.

I helped prepare my first turkey today.

So this year, I am thankful for everything that has come: graduation, moving across the country, finally doing something that I find worthwhile and that I am always looking forward to, building an identity that is the most honest I have ever felt.

I am also thankful for everything that will be: for Christmas, being able to come home, for getting my Masters in the spring, for the future beyond.

I'm thankful for my family for their endless support and encouragement in pursuit of a profession that is not the most steady of choices. I'm thankful for my friends who are only a phone call away when I'm feeling overwhelmed, for letting me know that everything will pass.

And that's what Thanksgiving is, my dad told me today, to thank heaven and earth for its blessings, to thank this country for taking us in, and to be thankful for life and its opportunity.

Because to be alive, to be secure with yourself, with your life, and with all the people within it is something to always be thankful for. And definitely worth celebrating.