Turkey day is a family holiday, but this year marks the first year I won’t be going home for Thanksgiving. It dawned on me the other day that I won’t be baking brownies and cookies for my Mom. I won’t be watching football and the parade with my Dad. And, I won’t be eating the traditional plateful of stuffing my Mom sets aside especially for me.

Instead, this year, I will be learning to “grow up” and spend Thanksgiving with my Emory friends in their homes here in Georgia. I'll experience new traditions, and see how other families celebrate.

The real world doesn’t often let you go home for the holidays whenever you want. Often, as a doctor my Father is called away during holidays and that’s just a part of being a working member of society. So I figure, I might as well start practicing to be an adult now, right?

After all, we've got less than 200 days to graduation . . . and the real world!