Spending Thanksgiving 1,300 km away from home

More than half of the NAIT women’s volleyball team is from outside the greater Edmonton area, with Mia Hildebrandt travelling all the way from Winnipeg, Manitoba to play at NAIT.

For Hildebrandt, this semester marks her first time away from home and Thanksgiving marks her first holiday being away from family.

I just miss the conversations at the dinner table or watching stuff on TV together. It’s just little things you can’t do when you call them. It’s the funny things that come with living with your family that you miss and I didn’t think that I would when I moved here.

Mia Hildebrandt

While Thanksgiving might seem like a minor holiday, for people who have moved away from home for work or for schooling, they are experiencing their first holiday away from their loved ones.

“[Thanksgiving] is the first holiday that comes up,” said psychologist, Dr. Paul Sussman. “So it’s the first time you’ve ever had that experience. By the time you get to Christmas, you’ve at least been through Thanksgiving so you know what it’s like.”

Sussman offered some options to people who are spending the day by themselves such as volunteering, spending time with friends, joining another family or taking the day to rest.

“Even if you’re alone and you have no one to be with, why don’t you cook yourself a nice nutritious meal and sit down and take a few deep breaths, and nourish your body, get to bed early, and enjoy the fact that you’ve got an extra day on the weekend to get back into it,” said Sussman.

While she may be far from her family in Winnipeg, Hildebrandt has found a new set of friends and family in both the volleyball team and in classes at NAIT.

“It’s been super awesome to have my teammates and friends reach out to me and say, ‘If you need a place to come on thanksgiving, you can come join my family.’ That’s what this season’s about,” said Hildebrandt.

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