After having survived one of the biggest holidays of the year, Halloween, America moved on to another big one – Thanksgiving. The holiday is nearly as old as the idea of the New World itself. While America looks much different than it did in 1621, this tradition of togetherness has weathered all it could take. Of course, as almost all experts agree upon, this year has been different than others. With this difference comes changes in many people’s Thanksgiving traditions, some taking great steps to see their family, and some not seeing them at all for the first time during the holiday. LHSToday conducted a small, anonymous survey of 56 students to see how their Thanksgivings went. 

Most students surveyed kept their Thanksgiving at home, with 25.4% surveyed traveling by car or plane. 

While some surveyed students did not travel, they still had their concerns. “Unfortunately,” said a surveyee, “my family wasn’t concerned about COVID even though we have immunocompromised people in the house.”

Students surveyed mostly stuck with their own families, but some branched out with guests outside the household, some with numbers as small as one and others above ten.

However, this doesn’t mean that Thanksgiving was a lonely affair for 58.2% of surveyed students. There is a possibility that the growing trend of Zoom Thanksgivings this year kept families connected without travel. Some students felt nervous at the polarizing ideas of in-person Thanksgiving, which has sparked some hot debates across America. One student answered on a short-answer portion of their survey on behalf of students who physically saw their families.
“I do not want to be shamed for mine and other people’s choices”, said the anonymous student. Thanksgiving has been an interesting holiday break for Liberty students. Now what’s left to wonder is what we will be doing when the December holidays creep up on the school community. 

Nearly half of the surveyed students agreed—the path ahead in December is cloudy. As the number of positive COVID cases rolls in, we will continue (begrudgingly) to live through one of the oddest points of history.