The "Best" Thanksgiving

Picture this: a wonderful vacation away from the yucky weather in Michigan. A great Thanksgiving in St. Louis with your family. You get to see all of your family that you haven’t seen in a year! All of this sounds awesome right? And it would be great... if it wasn't for the ten hour drive.

For the past week my family and I have been dreading this long trip to St. Louis. "If one of our kids are sick, do we still have to go?" My dad has been asking my mom at least twice a day. But the truth is, nothing can get us out of this trip. We have to go visit our family in St. Louis. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my Aunt and Uncle out in St. Louis, and I always have a blast with my little cousins. But a ten-hour drive with five people and a dog, that’s what I'm having a hard time with. But, there's no way out. We're the only family that hasn't been out to visit yet, so it's our time.

My friends keep saying that ten hours isn't that big of a deal if I sleep. Which is true, if I could sleep I would sleep through the entire ride. But, I can't. It's like I have a disease that stops you from sleeping in a moving car. Planes are fine, trains are fine, even busses are fine. But, when I'm in a car, I cannot sleep no matter how tired I am. But there was nothing I could do. I had to drive to St. Louis.

I woke to my dad’s strict voice telling me to get out of bed at four o’clock in the morning on Wednesday. Sluggishly, I waddled down the stairs and into the back of the white minivan. To my surprise, I was out in the matter of seconds, not waking up until 8 when we stopped for breakfast. After that I mostly slept and watch a few movies.

When we finally arrived to the big house in the city of St. Louis Lake, my 5 and 7-year-old cousins greeted us with enthusiasm. Great, I thought. I forgot about the cousins. I was going to have to babysit them while the adults had a great time and I’m stuck running around for the kids. Just my luck, I thought. I’m already exhausted from the car ride and now I have to watch the kids. What a great Thanksgiving this was turning out to be.

Once Thanksgiving finally came around, everyone was in a bad mood because the Detroit Lions lost… again. But the silent dinner wasn’t too bad, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and of course biscuits.

How could this Thanksgiving possibly get worse? I thought. Everything had already gone wrong. Or, so I thought. For when Saturday came around and Michigan lost, yet again, everyone was in a horrible mood. Such a bad mood that my dad wouldn’t even talk to me.

So clearly, this was THE best Thanksgiving ever.

 

The Rabbit Proof Fence

Imagine going through your day like any other normal day. Imagine waking up and taking a shower and eating breakfast. Imagine playing with your friends when suddenly strangers invade your house and take you away from your family. They throw you in the back of a truck and take you to a camp and force you to learn a different life style. You cannot talk your native language and you have to be catholic. And you had to act like a sex slave to breed your children into all white children. This was how it was for Molly, Gracie, and Daisy.

            In the film “The Rabbit Proof Fence,” the white, European men moved into the Aboriginal life style, trying to change their culture. They thought that they were helping the Aboriginals by building a fence to block off the rabbits, giving the Aborigines food and water. But, at the same time, they were taking away half of their population; the half casts. The Aborigines have their own culture and like the way they live. They don’t need the European men taking it away from them.

            As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Aborigines were beginning to be taken way from their family and sent into the Moor River Camp. There they would learn the lifestyles of the white people, speaking their language, learning their religion, and eating their food. I believe that a human being doing this to another human being is just sickening. I don’t understand how someone can see another person as some kind of animal; trying to breed him or her into a certain race.  How can the human race be so mean?

            Sadly, this isn’t the first time the human race has been so cruel, and it wont be the last. The worst of this, as you remember, was the Holocaust. The difference with this was that the Nazi’s tried to do to the Jews; tried to ultimate all of them from the world and make everyone the same race. Although this time they weren’t killing people, they still had the same intentions.

            This film really opened my eyes up to the cruelty of humans. Us as human beings need to realize that the world is filled with different kinds of people. No one will ever be the same as another. We cannot continue to try to change that fact. Just realize that everyone has his or her different ways of life. Live your life the way you want to and don’t try to make everyone like you.

Too Old To Trick-Or-Treat?

How is it possible to be “too old to trick-or-treat?”  After all, doesn’t everyone, no matter what age, enjoy dressing up like an idiot and going door-to-door begging for free candy? This year when I went trick-or-treating I was constantly asked my age and told I was “too old to trick-or-treat.”

This year before Halloween, my mom told me that she hated when teenagers my age came to her door begging for candy. But what’s wrong with a few teenagers that still have the spirit of Halloween inside of them? I believe that if you still dress up and say trick-or-treat, it’s all right to continue to trick-or-treat no matter how old you are. So, my friends and I dressed up and went trick-or-treating for one last year.

After a few houses, we came to a big, scary, house that smelled like smoke and old people. We all chanted trick-or-treat for a minute or two until an old man in a plaid shirt came to the door with a bowl of delicious chocolates. He looked up at us with a strange expression on his face. His light green eyes scanned the group of teenagers in front of him. After a moment or two, his raspy voice called out asking, “How old are you?”

Without thinking we all called out twelve or thirteen. His threatening eyes looked right into mine and I felt as if he now suddenly new everything about me. He knew now that I had just told a lie. And with that, he closed the door on us, leaving us on the empty porch in front of his house. We then continued our journey in the cold on our hunt for free candy.

The next few houses were pretty friendly. A few questions here and there, but nothing too dramatic.  But I couldn’t help but go back to what the old man said. I felt his glare go right through me. I had a strange feeling inside of me, like there was a stranger out there that new everything about me.

My last year of trick-or-treating was great. I just couldn’t believe how many people had an age limit to trick-or-treating. If you still enjoy getting candy on Halloween, why can’t you go trick-or-treating no matter what age?