Another November- Thankful in Tulum

Fall, Years Ago

Fall used to be my least favourite time of year. It always seemed as if time was slipping away in ways I couldn’t quite keep up with. 

As the daylight drained away, it just so happened that events in my own life lined up to create a season that felt sad and lonely. 

The holidays were always a light at the end of a dim-if-not-dark tunnel, but fall was just not my thing for a very long time.

That’s not to say that I don’t have some of my fondest memories of drinking apple cider and picking pumpkins with my family. In fact, when I was 8, I asked for my August birthday celebration to feature ‘Thanksgiving food’ because I loved that occasion so much. 

The complexities of being a teenager dampened a lot of my feelings for fall, but that only lasted a while.

November 2018 (& Some of 2020)

The first fall since childhood that brought true joy throughout the entire season was one that saw me finally finding an escape that I had been searching for, for years. 

At 19, my last of the ‘teen’ years, fall quickly and almost inexplicably became new, and with that newness came a huge shift in my life.

I used to feel like my time abroad was me running away from my ‘real life’ for a while, but I found that I was actually running toward the way that the rest of my life is shaping up to be. 

That fall back in 2018 was a season spent in the middle of the sea, in countries I’d either barely heard of or had always dreamed of visiting, and with new people that helped my view of the world shift like never before.

Ever since then, fall has seemed to take on an entirely new meaning. It has been a beginning, and not just in the ‘buying new books for the school year’ kind of way. 

That November years ago saw my first ever Thanksgiving away from home, coincidentally the only day I felt the smallest bit of homesickness creep into my rose-coloured world of travel.

A year ago, I’d been in Arizona living and working from home for the entire month as a way to combat the isolation of a pandemic sprung upon us all. Many of those same friends from the ship were there, and even more new traditions arose from that period of time.

November 2021 (& Some of 2020)

This year, on a crisp Saturday morning that turned into the perfect dry heat that Arizona always brings to mind, I got a chance to make the drive back from Tucson to Phoenix in my grandma’s blue Volkswagen Jetta. The same one that I made that same drive in just over a year earlier to start off that month that I so dearly associate with the idea of togetherness.

This time, my home base has shifted across the country from Ohio to California and the reunion only lasted a day but was one that I’d so unconsciously been needing. 

For weeks I’ve felt drawn to get back in nature, to camp or hike or do something more than half an hour from the apartment that I now call home. Getting to see Kelsey who was in for the weekend from Tennessee, and hiking and exploring in the Superstition Mountains, was such a happy parallel to this exact time last year. 

She’d been there the year of that first Thanksgiving in our home away from home but was unable to attend the celebration during that month spent in Arizona in 2020. This year felt like a missing piece coming into place, an addition that we had missed before. Synchronicity, in a way.

Following my Saturday with Kelsey, the whole reason for the most recent Arizona trip, my grandma and I fell into the short but daily routine of waking up at 5:45 to go on sunrise hikes. The first of which took place on Sunday morning before a stop at the farmers market, and the following of which preceded my 3 days of work before driving home to California. 

There is something so comforting about fall now and, to me, Arizona is the perfect place to experience the season through adventure and reconnection alike. Whether it’s with friends or family, it feels like a new tradition beginning to form. Who knows, maybe it’ll only be this way for now or maybe I’ll always feel the need to explore and reconnect during this month that falls so perfectly between the excitement of summer and the calm of winter.

Tulum, Traveling, and Thankfulness

Now, I’m sitting in a boutique hotel in the center of Tulum, Mexico, about to spend my first Thanksgiving ever not doing any form of traditional celebrating. 

I suppose the ‘famsgiving’ that Sierra (my now-longterm-roommate) and I hosted last weekend with some of our other friends from the ship was tradition enough in its own way, but I’m particularly excited about this Thanksgiving day itself.

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving of 2021, I’ll be exploring Chichén Itzá with my other current roommate and childhood best friend, Brooke, whose birthday was the reason for this current trip to Mexico.

Another wonder of the world, a place my dad and I have watched documentaries about for years, and most certainly a bucket-list item, this year at Chichén Itzá is going to be monumental in its own regard. I’ll still be with family, if not by blood, and am most definitely thankful for everything that I have been able to do at this early stage of my life.

I can’t help but think about the way that fall has changed for me over the years, now including both the travel and the friends that changed my world so much, to begin with, all while keeping connected with the family that has always made this time of year feel special.

Now, fall is my favourite time of year thanks to the possibilities, and the memories, and the exciting new adventures that always seem to be just around the corner.