COLUMN: This Thanksgiving, there's a lot to be thankful for

From Kieran Darcy's, "From Downtown," Fall '98 From Kieran Darcy's, "From Downtown," Fall '98I sat down the other day to make my Amtrak reservations for next week, and it suddenly occurred to me that the reason I was returning home was Thanksgiving. Prior to that moment of profound realization, I had viewed the trip simply as relief, the calm before the storm of final exams. I am ready to roll out of here for a few days. The bags are already being packed (with dirty laundry), and now all that is left to be done is to wage that fierce battle with my conscience over whether I should be a real rebel and skip my (empty) classes on Wednesday that should have been canceled. It's a tough call, huh? But the realization that my vacation home is for Thanksgiving inspired some serious thought about what the holiday means to me. The obvious things popped into my head: turkey and football. The food aspect has particularly enthralled me since I went away to college, but there's more to this feast than food, and I probed my mind further. The image that I just could not get out of my head was one of me in grade school, drawing pictures of pilgrims and Indians. I recalled that one year, my teacher made us all sit down and list the things that we were thankful for that year. In a likely procrastination attempt, I decided to make a similar list this year. First of all, I am thankful that the students rose to the occasion and defied University policy by tearing down a goal post and tossing it in the river after the Quakers clinched the Ivy League football title. And a special thank you to the University administration for their overwhelming support of the students and for adding the nice touch of riot police to give the whole event that "rebellion" feel. I am also thankful that I have an exorbitant amount of time to study for my finals, since I have two of them on the last day, December 22. This way I can screw around and waste time for a couple of weeks, and then barely get home in time for Christmas! OK, maybe I'm actually pretty ticked off about this, but I'm still hopeful my professors are as pissed about this as I am and change the dates. I am thankful for the new housing program here at Penn, as well. Of course, I won't be around to see much of it, but that's life. Also, I'm quite excited that the high rises are being totally revamped -- except that when they are newly refurbished, they will still be 24-story eyesores that are not conducive to community life. And for ResNet movies and the wonderful world of television that distracts me everyday. Specifically this holiday season, I am especially thankful that Luke Perry has returned to 90210. Jason Priestley's departure represented a major loss to me in terms of male role models, but Dylan McKay can fill that void. I am thankful that the NBA owners and players checked their greed and egos at the door and settled their labor dispute before things got out of hand and the sport suffered like during that baseball strike a few years ago. Oh, wait a second? And I am thankful that my beloved New York Yankees won the World Series this year and had perhaps the greatest season ever. A special thank you goes out to George Steinbrenner for having the huge wallet to pay all of them. Well, those are some of the things on my list, which is quite different than those that I recall from my grade school days. I wasn't quite as sarcastic or cynical back in the third grade. I guess those wonderful qualities come with old age. But the very top of my list hasn't changed. Now that I've entertained you (I hope) for a bit, a serious thought. I'm going home next week, as many of us are, to my family and my parents who have made it possible for me to be at Penn. They've made it possible for me to do everything that I have in my life. That fact hasn't changed since my first Thanksgiving list, or my first Thanksgiving. We all have people who have enabled us to be where we are today. Take the opportunity while you're home to show them how grateful you are. Thanks, Mom and Dad. I love you.