Thanks!

Thanksgiving at Mike’s parents’ house was lovely. I got to meet his little sister who is a sophomore in college. She goes to school two states over but she seems to really like it. Her name is Sarah and seeing her interact with Mike just made my heart melt. Mike and I were put in charge of pies, so we arrived with pumpkin and apple after I got done with the show (that’s right, it is now open and getting sold out almost every night).

Mike’s mom was in the kitchen with Sarah, working up a storm. Sarah was in charge of the gravy and I was put on salad-tossing duty. Mike was setting the table and Frank was pouring wine into the glasses. The turkey was sitting on the kitchen island, resting, and Betty was taking warm dinner rolls out of the oven and taking stock of everything.

Once the gravy boats were filled, the stuffing and potatoes were put in serving dishes, and the turkey made its grand entrance, we all sat around the dining room table salivating at the gorgeous food. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for (it’s a family tradition for Mike’s family) and then Frank started cutting ip and serving the turkey.

Sarah was very friendly to me, she talked about college and what it was like being away from her mom and dad while Mike and his dad talked about the car they were re-furbishing. Betty listened to Sarah as she talked about her major.

“I don’t know, I think business is a good idea realistically-speaking but I wish being a dance major was a possibility.” Sarah said while eating some stuffing.

“Why isn’t it?” Betty asked with a sly smile.

“Well, because.” Sarah said reaching for the gravy boat, “I don’t even know what I would do with that. What do you think Faith?”

“Hmm.” I buttered a dinner roll, “I’ve always thought that when it comes to majors in college, you should do what you like and make it practical.”

“What did you do?” Sarah asked.

Betty smiled at me, I’m sure Mike had told her all about my college history and I think the smile was a sign of approval.

“I double-majored. I got a communications degree and a theatre degree.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. A lot of the classes overlapped and I used my communications degree to work in HR for awhile, now I’m working as a stage manager and a bartender for now. But I’m hoping that, at some point, I won’t need to have that side job and be able to completely work in theatre.”

“I never thought about double-majoring.” Sarah contemplated with a slice of turkey.

“The trick to double-majoring is to pick two majors that you’d like that have a lot of overlapping classes. You’ll be able to graduate on time. And a great bonus is that you can apply to more scholarships than you would if you were only majoring in one thing because you’ll be eligible for the scholarships for the other major, assuming they require the applicants to be majoring in that subject.”

“So, if I want to major in dance, I should really pick something that overlaps, but I don’t think there’s anything.”

“You’ll need to look in your course catalog, sweetie.” Betty said, “I’m sure there’s something. But even if there isn’t, there isn’t anything wrong with majoring in dance.”

The conversation continued easily and Mike and left stuffed with food and good cheer. I called my parents when I got home and talked about how their Thanksgiving was and my told me that my brother had decided to come home for Christmas for a few days. I’m glad about that. I’d called and asked him if he would do that instead of spend his entire Christmas vacation off from work at his new girlfriend’s parents’ place and he said no, but he must have felt guilty and changed his mind. I’m glad my parents won’t be alone for Christmas, now.