As Thanksgiving inches closer, students have started to reflect on many of their favorite memories during the holiday.

Christina Kurek, a freshman elementary education major, said her favorite thing about Thanksgiving is being together with her family since they are so distant and live far away from each other.

“We normally alternate whose house we celebrate it a, but every family usually brings one dish to share during dinnertime with about 20-25 people,” Kurek said.

Kurek, being the middle child in her family, said it is important to her to encourage her younger brother to follow in her footsteps and go away to a university just like her.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to actually be here at EIU, because I’m the only child in my family to actually go away to a university and be able to gain this amazing experience,” Kurek said.

Kurek said her Thanksgiving dinner is often spent in a culturally diverse way with her dad’s Polish side of the family. This often includes two main Polish dishes such as pierogis and polish sausage.

“I look forward for those dishes, because it’s different than a typical dinner that we have and I don’t get to eat them very often,” Kurek said.

Justin Coles, a freshman kinesiology and sports studies major, comes from an Italian and Greek household.

Like Kurek, Coles’ family still has a big Thanksgiving dinner, which they also celebrate in a way that is representative of his heritage.

“My family is both Italian and Greek so we have a lot of pasta dishes during Thanksgiving, along with a bowl full of feta cheese that we often put on a lot of our food,” Coles said.

One thing Coles is thankful for this Thanksgiving is the opportunity to be a part of the United States National Guard.

“Being in the United States National Guard is important to me because it gives me opportunities to move forward in my life by assisting my parents with school payments and giving me a sense of self pride in serving my country,” Coles said.

Heather Fiorio, a freshman undecided major, said one of her favorite childhood memories of growing up in an Italian household, is causing mischief during Thanksgiving dinner.

Florio said these are the Thanksgiving memories she will never forget, because they are filled with her family members’ laughter.

“When me and my sister were younger during Thanksgiving dinnertime, we would always go under the table and tickle and touch people’s feet to mess around with them,” Fiorio said. “I don’t even know why it was funny to us, but we would be under there laughing a lot.”