Assignment 14: Ethan Petraitis

Thanksgiving was always a very hard time for me and always a holiday I never really understood. When my parents moved from Florida all the way up to Kentucky, we were completely broke, my mom worked at Linens-n-Things and my dad started working at a Wal-Mart down the road from where we lived, it was the tiniest little apartment you’ve ever seen. We ate our meals off of paper plates, our ‘couch’ and ‘dinner chairs’ were just camping chairs that we got for $15 and our dinner table was an air hockey table that my cousin gave to us when we moved away from Florida. It was pretty pathetic, honestly.

            The worst part of all was when Thanksgiving rolled around. We had no family in Kentucky, we didn’t make any real friends in the few months we had been here for, and we had to get our turkey from Gods Pantry for the next few years. That really makes a 6-year-old think. I wasn’t a very grateful child then, I felt that since I didn’t have much, I shouldn’t be as grateful as these kids with rich parents, all the newest things, and a big full house on Thanksgiving. I was embarrassed and ashamed that I didn’t have much other than a loving family. Later on though, I realized that hey, we made it through that intact as a family, and we’re doing better now and for that I am certainly grateful.