Thanksgiving is a trigger word for everyone’s taste buds: a simple breakdown of that beautiful Thursday’s menu is all that is needed to get feeble our mouth to salivate.

Full bellies, warm hearts and near-irrational football fanatics make Thanksgiving a special holiday. Of course, we each dread the inevitable: when someone makes the whole table uncomfortable by using the phrase "food baby."

But the real cringe-worthy topic at hand: Awkward questions about school and our future from that relative we are not too close with.

When this relative’s curious, invasive eyes meet ours during that post-dinner lull, we instantly regret not getting up to help our brother scrub dishes. We cannot help but think how this relative can be so condescending or how our life is not quite to an ideal point, but this relative will not get the hint that we do not want to talk about it, so we are stuck wallowing in silence. Do we really have to be stuck?

We have all clenched our fists, waiting for that relative to pick on someone else, which is why a challenge is proposed to us today: Embrace family and be self-loving.

Why do we think this relative is asking these questions? We often feel like these topics are low-hanging, impersonal conversation points or personal attacks on our unsuccessful lives. Sure, the fact that we are young and in school may be all they know about us, but remember that if they did not care, they would not ask. We should embrace this conversation, not sulk behind it.

This relative, who perhaps came from out of town just to visit us, is genuinely curious about what we are up to and is trying to learn more about us. Yes, talking about our future is hard; none of us know what we are doing next semester let alone after graduation, but is that a reason to close ourselves off?

Letting these questions stir up our emotions is really letting our insecurities dictate our mood. If love and acceptance dictate the conversation, our moods will follow. We may view these questions as personal attacks, but they have the intent of love and we need to realize that.

If love orchestrates this inevitable conversation, we will find ourselves opening up more and creating a stronger bond with this relative. And here is a crazy thought: we might actually ask a seemingly meaningless question back because we genuinely care! Would that not be spectacular?

This Thanksgiving break, let us challenge ourselves to something that is completely achievable and certainly needed. Please, this Thanksgiving break, let us put our negative, predetermined notions behind and embrace the family around us rather than become a dangerous combination of embarrassment and anger.

Whether you usually eat a near intolerable amount of food to the extent that people are uncomfortable to be around you or whether you usually disassociate yourself from the group to watch football, step up to the dinner plate and challenge yourself to distribute love since you received love in the first place.

Are you challenging yourself in other ways this Thanksgiving break? Leave it in a comment below!