Valentine’s Day is over-promoted, Halloween is everywhere, and Christmas is a spectacle you can’t avoid, yet there’s one holiday that’s always overlooked: Thanksgiving. However, I’ve always been quite fond of the holiday. The idea of setting aside time to be in the moment and reflect on the past has always been appealing to me.

Looking back to when I was a young child, I remember being comfy on the couch at my great-grandmother’s house watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I absolutely loved the cartoon-themed floats and would become ecstatic to see a character, like Snoopy. I wouldn’t move from the TV screen until my uncle would inevitably change the channel to the big football game.

The smell of freshly baked dinner rolls would meet me when I walked down the hall to see the stockpile of Christmas gifts all ready for the upcoming month. Then, I’d head outside to rake what was left of the fall leaves and old apples. Some years we’d already have snow on the ground, in which I’d head out onto the back deck and collect pots of fresh powder. Without a care in the world, we’d pour fresh maple syrup over to make “sugar on snow.” My great-grandmother would always fuss about us ruining our dinner, but even with all the snacks there’s no way we would miss her homemade meat pie. Surrounded by my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles I didn’t usually see, it was beyond joyful.

Today, Thanksgiving is seen by many as just a week off from school and a day closer to Christmas. As the years pass I feel that people have become more and more materialistic. Only excited for the holiday season because of free gifts and being able to eat a lot of food. I feel that especially here in our country, people don’t take enough time to think about what they have and how grateful they should be for it. The small things you don’t usually acknowledge because they’re just normal, baseline. Things like good health, the kind of things you don’t appreciate until they’re gone.

Thanksgiving has changed a lot for me over the years. After my great-grandparents passed I thought nothing would be the same, and I was right. Nothing was the same, but that’s not what they would have wanted me to think. They would have wanted me to continue to pass on the traditions to my brother and the rest of the family. Then, in 2021, my Grandma Nancy passed away on Thanksgiving day. I thought to myself, “What’s the point of celebrating anymore, because the day has been ruined for me?” What had once been my favorite holiday had turned bleak.

This year we will finally continue to celebrate Thanksgiving again. Although those special people are no longer with us, we can still take the time to be thankful for memories we had with them, and the times we will have in the future with others.

Thanksgiving works as a reminder of what you have and how far you’ve gotten, although that shouldn’t be the only time we reflect on our gratitude. It’s so simple to take five minutes out of your day to write and reflect, whether it be in your notes app on your phone, a sticky note during lunch break, or in a letter to a friend or loved one.

On this Thanksgiving, I urge my peers to start a new, daily tradition: Remember those from your past, look forward to the possibilities of the future, and practice gratitude for all you have right now. Thanksgiving should not be confined to just a day. Year round we need to practice these things, as that’s what we’re lacking in society today: Mindful appreciation for what we have, so that we can remember it better when it’s gone.

That’s why this Nov. 23, when my family is together, I’ll invite them to share memories of my Grandma Nancy. Here’s one of my favorites: We would visit my Grandma at her home that sits right on the St. Lawrence River. We’d look out the back door and see the large ships and barges go by on those special days. The sunrises and sunsets looked magical from her doorway. We would spend time in the kitchen cooking up delicious food while laughing and enjoying the company. I can still smell her famous strawberry shortcake, and the chicken scampi. I will always remember the time I got to spend with her, and what better time than Thanksgiving to reflect on the memories she gave me.

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Kaidence Moore is a teenager living in Keeseville. An avid and accomplished disc golfer, Moore was the second place winner in the “My Dreams for My Community” essay contest held this year by Adirondack Center for Writing and Adirondack Voters for Change.