Thanksgiving is a holiday people hold dear to their hearts, and it can be an especially wonderful time for college students who have grown tired of homesickness and TV dinner diets.

During a particularly bitter cold and windy time on Eastern’s campus, college students huddled together with rosy cheeks and dripping noses, reflecting on their favorite aspects of the holiday with earnest anticipation and admiration.

Amber Salutric, a junior majoring in both communication disorders and sciences and Spanish, said she is reminded of the special chance to reunite with her family when she thinks of Thanksgiving.

Salutric said living away from home makes seeing extended family difficult, so she always looks forward to reconnecting with them at Thanksgiving.

“I love Thanksgiving. It’s honestly my favorite holiday,” she said. “Before (my family and I) eat, we pray together and we’ll all just say things that we’re thankful for, and I just really like it because I don’t get to see my cousins a lot.”

Katelyn Mushinsky, another junior communication disorders and sciences major, said Thanksgiving is a pleasant transition to the winter season and brings a bit of warmth to the chilly, often gloomy weather.

“I always think Thanksgiving is kind of like the start of kind of a brutal winter (in) Illinois, so it’s nice to get together with everyone and start it on that happy note,” Mushinsky said. “It really just carries me into Christmas, and then Christmas is so exciting, too. I think the holidays are really what gets us through the winter.”

Thinking about the good things in life that people take for granted is a common theme of Thanksgiving, and senior accounting major Tyler Campuzano said all of his blessings have been accounted for.

Campuzano said the love his family and friends give is reason enough to celebrate, and he admires it more fervently now that he is living away from home.

“(Family and friends) are my inspiration. They’re there for me (and) they’ve got my back,” he said.

Having the opportunity to study at Eastern and meet new people is another thing to cherish, Campuzano said, because some people do not have the necessary resources to do that.

Marcial Bustamante, a senior music performance major, said one of his favorite parts of Thanksgiving is the food, a monumental theme of the holiday.

The dish he is most excited to sink his teeth into is the tamales meal his mother makes, he said.

Bustamante said a fond, yet clumsy, memory he has of Thanksgiving is when he tried to help his mother prepare the tamales one year.

“(I remember) trying to help my mom make tamales and completely messing it up. I think I poured too much water, when I was little, and it dissolved all the dough, so we had to go buy more materials,” he said. “Now (she is) like, “‘Just tie these (tamales) up. Don’t do anything else.’”

Salutric, Mushinsky, Campuzano and Bustamante said they hope the rest of Eastern has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving break this year.

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].