Your favorite New Yorker, the one and only Nicole Prechtl, is back to rant about her favorite thing to do in November: traveling home on Thanksgiving Eve. Grab yourself some Advil, and we’ll let her take it from here:
“There are two types of traveling problems that you will face in your lifetime: college holiday traveling and adult holiday commuting, ages 22 to forever.
For college kids, this is the biggest traveling week of the year. No one wants to head home at 3:00 pm the day before Thanksgiving; God forbid you miss Thanksgiving Eve at your local bar with everyone from high school you don’t really want to even see. Everyone is stressed out trying to figure out if their grades will allow for them to miss classes on Wednesday. Dear teachers: you should be understanding and leave class that day optional. No new material should be taught, and absolutely no tests should be given. From my experience, I know teachers do that on purpose to ensure you attend class that day, and that is just cruel. I can tell you one thing I’m not thankful for—those teachers. If you’re a teacher and reading this, here is something to kindly include in your email to your students: ‘If you want some extra help or to review for finals, then feel free to swing by, If not, go home and enjoy time with your family, the most important thing in your life. Happy Thanksgiving!’ Lastly, I hope you aren’t traveling via greyhound to get home. That’s a monster in itself.
As an adult in New York, the first thing you need to figure out before commuting home from work Thanksgiving week is how much time you can take off. You will ask yourself, ‘Do I have enough personal days left to take Wednesday and Friday off? Well, while I’m at it, how about Monday, too?’ If you are hosting Thanksgiving and you come from a large Italian family like myself, sometimes even 3 days of preparation doesn’t cut it. It feels like you are cooking and setting a table for a small army that requires a week to get ready for. If you do not have those personal days at your disposal (which many don’t), then you’re stuck joining the millions traveling between the hours of noon and 4:00 pm on Thanksgiving Eve. Lol. GOODLUCK. Mentally brace yourself before entering the hell holes that are Grand Central, Penn Station, and Port Authority on this day. Honestly, the best advice I could give you (that has been given to me, which I always ignore and regret my ignorance) is to take your normal 5:20 pm train, because that’ll seriously be the least crowded.
Oh, the holidays. There is so much to be thankful for. Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving everyone!”