Thanksgiving brings people together to celebrate in remembrance of the treaty and feast established between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe with festivities from all sorts of cultural backgrounds.

In the theme of remembrance, Thanksgiving allows us to share meaningful memories with the friends and family we love most. The beauty of the diversity at Eaglecrest allows students to share very separate and special memories about their Thanksgiving traditions and favorite moments.

“Being with family and eating all the good food all day and watching football” is what Elijah Skeen holds to be most memorable about his Thanksgivings. Though being a simplistic memory to hold for Thanksgiving, the memory still holds value to Skeen because it is what he personally holds dear.

The best memories can also come from specific events for some people. Karen Slusher feels that there are traditions and events held during Thanksgiving because of one event in particular. “Essentially it took my husband 9 months prior to Thanksgiving to finally ask me out and it was because he always organizes a group of people to play flag football every Thanksgiving morning… So that Thanksgiving he invited me to come play and I decided to go play and kept wondering if he would ask me out. So I brought a friend along with me and the only friend I could bring with me was Mr. Cole. I made it very clear from the second I showed up and made it very clear Mr. Cole and I were friends and not soon after my husband asked me out during the flag football game.” Karen Slusher explains how much Thanksgiving means to her. This specific event is what got the Slusher family to continue their Thanksgiving flag football game every year.

There are many interpretations of what a memorable Thanksgiving is for each family. We see that a simple football game and festive food can be enough for somebody, or it can be the time a husband and wife can find most memorable because that’s when they finally started dating. The beauty of Thanksgiving is that aspect of how specific things are special to different people. These events are eventually what lead to the establishment of lifelong traditions.

Students all across the campus follow through with this sort of diversity. While some students shared their personal greatest memories in depth from Thanksgiving, others said their favorite memories come from simple things they do during the holiday.

“My favorite Thanksgiving memory is just getting to hangout with my family and see who can eat the most.” David Chaparro.

“Probably watching the Panthers kill the Cowboys.” Jacob Neal.

“My favorite Thanksgiving memory is the first Thanksgiving that I can remember because I had all my family there and they were just having a good time enjoying the food and conversations.” Michael Thomas.

“My favorite Thanksgiving was going to California and going over to my uncle’s house and helping my abuela make Tamales and Posole and just seeing all my family in one big table laughing and just having fun.” Damaris Tzul.

“My favorite memory was going sledding with my cousins after watching the Macy’s day parade.” Mikayla Algeo

“It was going to my grandparent’s house to visit. All my cousins and aunts came, and we spent the week literally just bonding and becoming closer to one another.” Nathaniel Henderson.

“My favorite Thanksgiving memory was when I was young and my whole family came, even ones from Florida and the last Thanksgiving before my grandpa died.” Jason Hawkins.

“My favorite Thanksgiving memory was when my family came from different countries to spend quality time together. And a table full of food.” Marc Yakubets.

Thanksgiving is such a diverse holiday specifically because of its opportunity to display different values and traditions among families.