Thanksgiving break should be three days
COMMENTARY
Co-News Editor Jessica Sanders is a news-editorial journalism major from San Antonio.

My thoughts turned from jack-o-lanterns to pumpkin pie as soon as I turned the calendar page to November. I love Thanksgiving. It is a time for me to make chocolate pecan pie, to watch “Lord of the Rings” with my dad and my brothers, and to take an after-dinner walk with my mom.

Yes, home is where my heart is ... but the rest of me has to get there too.

Last year, Thanksgiving traffic added four hours to my trip. Adrift in an endless sea of headlights, I began to wonder if it was worth it to venture home for my favorite holiday.

Every year, college students go out of the way to plan around the nightmare of Thanksgiving traffic. We skip class, drive in the middle of the night and ignore speed limits. And because our school only allows us Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving break, TCU students are even more likely to be committing these transgressions.

In 2002, AAA estimated that 35.9 million Americans were traveling at least 50 miles from home during Thanksgiving weekend. That’s a lot of people on the road. Add tired, hurried college students and disaster is sure to ensue.

It probably seems obvious that the right thing to do is finish all your classes and leave Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Fine, if you live an hour or two away. But TCU has students from all over the country. If home is 10 hours away, it makes sense for students to want to leave a day before the actual holiday.

Thanksgiving travel is equally stressful for those taking a plane. Thanksgiving day is an extremely busy time for airports and a flight on Wednesday after classes or on Thanksgiving day may be hard to come by.

Often, so few people show up to classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving that professors simply show movies anyway. So for many classes, a day of lecture is lost regardless of whether school is officially in session.

TCU should consider the approach taken by schools like Baylor and Emory University. Their Thanksgiving breaks extend from Wednesday until Sunday. This allows students to spend more time with their families and also allows more time to get home safely and avoid the holiday rush.

Whether we’re rushing home to turkey or tofu, most TCU students would be thankful for an extra day.