Some Siblings Coming Home for Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches, families across the country are getting ready to celebrate the holiday. One of the things that many students look forward to is their siblings coming home from college. But because of the pandemic, a major health concern is people traveling and gathering in large numbers, and holidays are no exception. This means that Thanksgiving will look different for many students and their families.

Freshman Emily McClung has had a very unique experience with her siblings in college. One of her older brothers is a freshman at Arizona State University and has been living at home for the last month because of in-person classes being canceled. Since he is living at home, he will be at their Thanksgiving. 

However, her other brother, who is in his first year of earning his master’s degree at the University of Denver, will not be attending. He is in person for the majority of his classes and is living off the campus with three roommates. Due to logistics and safety concerns, he won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving. McClung shared, “I am sad because he won’t come home until Christmas and I miss him.”

Freshman Lily Maher has an older sister at American University who has been doing school virtually from an off-campus apartment. Since her older sister lives so close she will be coming back for Thanksgiving but they are not going up to Pittsburgh like they usually do for Thanksgiving. Maher said, “I feel sad because I haven’t seen my family in a long time because of the pandemic and we usually go up for Thanksgiving and I love going to Pittsburgh and spending time with my family.”

Freshman Emily Krucoff’s older sister, a junior at Towson University, will be spending Thanksgiving at home. Krucoff shared that “My sister actually had Covid earlier this fall in September.” She was online learning with her 3 roommates when they all started showing symptoms. After about a week the symptoms started going away and everything went back to normal. Now almost two months later she will be coming home to celebrate Thanksgiving with her immediate family. Krucoff said, “I am glad that she’s home for the week and safe so that we can spend the holiday together as a family.”

Decisions about safety are an inevitable part of this holiday season, but students are adapting to the new normal and hoping for better next year.