Thanksgiving at the Cross!

It’s that time on campus! The brisk Worcester winter has settled on campus as we all crank up the heat in our dorm rooms and trade out the sweatshirts for our heavier winter jackets, hats, and gloves. Switching out or ice coffees and teas for hot coffee and chocolate from Cool Beans and Cafe Babel, the winter spirit really is flourishing on campus!

A staple of wintertime on the Hill is our annual Thanksgiving dinner at Kimball Dining Hall! This year’s meal included turkey (of course), mash potatoes, gravy, squash, cranberry sauce, rolls, salad, corn, apple cider, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream! As I had moot court practice later that night that our captain decided that we would all have a team Thanksgiving dinner before we headed off to practice our oral arguments.

Due to Kimball Thanksgiving Dinner being so popular, the moot court team arrived 15 minutes before dinner began to get to the front of the line. As we waited for dining services to put all the food out a line began to form behind us that looped all the way around the entire dining room! Filling our plates up with a variety of traditional Thanksgiving food we quickly hurried off to our 18 person table where we all feasted, stuffing ourselves with food till we could barely move.  Eating and laughing about funny moments between the team members, time quickly flew by, forcing us to hurry to our practice with pumpkin and apple pies with ice cream on our plates. Our coaches met us laughing, asking us why none of us brought a pie for themselves. Just as the Pilgrims and Native Americans celebrated the friendship and community between the two peoples at the first Thanksgiving, the student body celebrates the friendship and community that permeates throughout the Holy Cross campus.

Kimball Dining Hall where the majority of campus gathers to eat meals.
A picture of the pumpkin pie Holy Cross students were treated to at Thanksgiving Dinner.

What Am I Thankful For?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have decided that it would be a fruitful exercise for myself, as well as any prospective students, to discuss why I am so thankful for my Holy Cross education.

At the expense of sounding cliche, I am so thankful for all the friends I have made so far at my time on the Hill. I could have never imagined the amount and quality of friends I find myself having now during my studies. Actually, being unable to make any friends at college was one of my biggest, if not the biggest, fears I had the summer before I came to campus for the first time. However, such fears of mine were greatly misplaced. I first met my two closest friends during Fall Orientation, and we have stuck together ever since. Furthermore, through my classes, living situation, extra-curricular activities, and a plethora of social events, I have made more friends than I could have ever imagined.

These people I have become friends with over the past year and a half have greatly contributed to the improvement of my self-character, something that I will be forever thankful for. All the memories and life lessons we have taught each other, or have received together, will never leave me.  As I toured, researched, and considered the College of the Holy Cross as a destination for my undergraduate studies I had constantly heard everyone talk about how the Holy Cross community was so friendly and caring; thinking that much of that could be chalked up to marketing. However, I can testify that such language is not marketing, but simply the truth. Administrators, students, professors, and even maintenance workers all hold relationships that lead to a loving, caring, and joyful community on the Hill that is a once in a lifetime experience.

I am so thankful that I am surrounded by such a great community that will stay with me for the rest of my life.  If making friends or having a great community around you is a must for your undergraduate experience, I highly suggest becoming a part of the Holy Cross Family.

A Group of Friends that Will Never Break Up