Happy early Thanksgiving!

I guess that I should probably talk about watching the parade and eating and being thankful for all the holiday clichés, but I'm not going to do that right away. For me, this year is a little different. I'm not going home for Thanksgiving. And I'm also not going home with any of my friends. Essentially, I'm gonna be on my own, but not really. This year, I'm celebrating 'Friendsgiving' -- the perfect combination of friends, food, and being thankful.

Thanksgiving at my house is probably one of my favorite things in the world. We get 2 turkeys, and my dad makes one early in the morning so that we can have turkey sandwiches while we all watch the parade and the football games. The second, of course, is the quintessential dinner turkey that gets drowned in gravy, baked macaroni, and mashed potatoes. But, before all the feasting, everyone goes around and says what they're thankful for. I could say I'm thankful for a lot of things: My entire family, being able to go to school here in California, the fact that dogs exist, One Direction, Starbucks, eyeliner... but rarely do I ever get to talk about how thankful I am to be myself. To feel real, to have everything I say and do be truly genuine. To not have to live in fear. Because I know that is not a luxury most people like me face. To be a queer WOC and to be out and have an amazing support system is not a luxury everyone gets. I'm thankful that I talk entirely too much, but have people around who choose to put up with it, and still decide they like me. I'm thankful for that time in 7th grade when I hit rock bottom, and that time in 8th grade when I was emo (spoiler: I'm still emo). And now, I'm thankful to be kind of able to adult without crying or dying. Mostly without dying.

I'm thankful that I somehow managed to make it through all the madness I've encountered with not so much as a few scratches, but a lot of scars along the way. I'm thankful for a lot of things. And I'm most thankful to be holding a Friendsgiving dinner with my second family -- my boyfriend and all my college friends. Because no matter where you are, Thanksgiving should be about spending it with people who make you happy and being thankful that you exist in each other's lives.