Friendsgiving

“FRIENDS GIVING”

By: Katie Wozniak Assistant Editor

Around the holiday season, especially Thanksgiving time, we are looking forward to (or often trying to avoid) the time spent with family, immediate and extended. While this may be one of the few times you see your favorite cousins, it is also the time when you see all your aunts, uncles and grandparents dying to know every detail about your non-existent love life or your college career. Sometimes, it is preferred to spend more time with your friends around this season rather than your family out of pure avoidance.

Friendsgiving is a self-dubbed as the holiday of millennials, established in everyday English language around the year 2007. According to Merriam-Webster in an online article discussing words that are not yet defined, but instead that they are watching: “Friendsgiving seems to be a relatively recent word. The earliest print uses of it that we’ve found so far date back to 2007, where it shows up in Usenet posts and on Twitter to refer to this informal meal. Given the fact that the word isn’t explained in these posts and tweets, it’s likely that Friendsgiving was floating around in spoken English for a bit before it showed up in written English—and this is pretty standard for new vocabulary.”

Gaining popularity, thanks to social media, Friendsgiving has become a selfdubbed “second Thanksgiving.” Friends of all ages gather together to celebrate, whether in high school, college or beyond. It can be a way to spend some more time with friends or reconnect with some you have not seen in years. While I may not find that ideal for some of the people I knew from high school, I believe this chance to reconnect is important

and heartwarming. USF junior Taylor Long describes her experience with Friendsgiving and how it has impacted her, saying: “When all of my high school friends started committing to colleges, we wanted to make sure that we would all stay in touch. So, Friendsgiving was started. Every time we get together, it is just like high school all over again and we have so much fun. We continue it every year because it helps us remember all the good times and memories we have shared together. And better yet, it gives us the opportunity to make more amazing memories with one another.”

Senior Marissa Salinas became nostalgic thinking about possibly getting her friends back together, saying: “My friends are basically my family as well. It would be so nice to eat together and just talk. It’s being thankful for the little things in life, like your friends, that can make Friendsgiving such a humbling experience.”

Whether you decide to partake in this new holiday tradition or not, it is important to remember this holiday season who is important to you in your life. Make time to spend with them and maybe, just maybe, you will start a tradition of your own.