Turkeys in the oven, families around the table and lots of laughter to go around is what Thanksgiving is usually all about but that isn’t the case for all students. For the Thanksgiving holiday, students use the days off classes differently depending on where they are from and if they celebrate Thanksgiving.

While some students have traditions they’ll continue to follow, some are hoping to start new traditions or even try celebrating for the first time.

Brianne Fournier, sophomore, mass communication | Fournier is from Burkburnett, Texas and lives in an apartment in Wichita Falls. For Thanksgiving, she plans on going to Electra to spend time with her mom’s family.

“I celebrate Thanksgiving because it gives you a day to be with family and appreciate everything in your life. Every Thanksgiving, we get in a big circle and go around and say what we are thankful for and then pray. After that I’m going to Burkburnett to be with my dad’s family and we just hangout then pray and eat. After we eat, we do Christmas because my family is so big so not everyone can come back for Christmas. Then after that my cousins and I usually go hiking the weekend after Thanksgiving just to spend some time together. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year because it’s one of the only times a year everyone in my family is together.”

Jordyn Gomez, sophomore, social work | Gomez is from Byers, Texas and lives in the Camelot apartments. For the break, she plans on spending time with family and friends.

“I’ll celebrate Thanksgiving with my friends and family this year and some fun traditions we’ve made are playing board games and Spanish bingo for money. During the break, I’ll be going to Nocona to see family and then Lewisville. I love the history of Thanksgiving and what it stands for, along with eating all the yummy food.”

Morgan Lloyd, sophomore, radiology | Lloyd is from Wichita Falls and lives on campus. For the break, she plans to celebrate Thanksgiving with family at home.

“I celebrate Thanksgiving because I enjoy the food and seeing all of my family I haven’t seen in a while. This year I am celebrating with my boyfriend’s family and my foster family and the rest of their family. We usually have a day dinner with my foster family then a night dinner with another side of my foster family. Over the break, I’m also dog sitting a corgi for my friend and I’ll be working. To me, Thanksgiving means looking back on all the good in your life and to be thankful for everyone who you’ve met in your life and who still resides in it. In the future, I would like to start a tradition of hosting Thanksgiving and having everyone come to my house instead.”

Manosha Rejaguru, junior, nursing | Rejaguru is an international student from Sri Lanka living in the Mustang Village apartments. While she won’t be going back home for the break, she and 12 other friends have big plans to celebrate their first Thanksgiving.

“I’ve never seen anyone celebrate Thanksgiving so it’s going to be a first experience. We thought we’d have a dinner since that’s what most people do but we don’t know the traditions that go along with it so we’re just making it our own. We’re all going to a friend’s apartment near Dallas and we’re going to make a road trip out of it and when we get there, we’re going to have a big dinner and just get together since we’re all free for the time. One of our friends is a chef so he’s going to make dinner for us, probably turkey, but I don’t know what else he plans on making.”

Karlie Spell, sophomore, nursing | Spell is from Arlington, Texas and lives on campus. For the break, she is going home to see her family she hasn’t been able to see for a while.

“After I get off work, I’m going to my boyfriend’s grandmother’s house. I’m not sure how that’s going to go since I don’t know their traditions since they’re from Mexico, so it’ll probably be a little different than what I’m used to. But with my family, before we eat, we normally stand in a circle and talk about what we’re thankful for. Other than that, I’ll be working almost every day of the break since I’m a broke college student. I love Thanksgiving since I get to spend time with my family and friends and I get a break from school.”