Traditional Thanksgiving

by silly_sad_machine

It's Thanksgiving in our part of the world, and for me it marks the first time in my life I've ever felt like an official adult - a man.

I'm 29, and for the last nine years I couldn't call myself a real adult. It just didn't make sense. I felt too much like I was still that kid in high school or that guy in college. In no way did I conform to any of the traits that I observed in the "adult" men in my life; I didn't own land or cattle, I didn't have any kids, I never balanced a checkbook or paid any taxes, and I didn't fall asleep in front of the warm glow of the Weather Channel. Hell, I still played video games and listened to groovecore. I was still in a band. I still played D&D with my friends.

Some things have certainly changed in the last few years, though. I graduated college, for one, and tossed myself into the workforce. Got a taste of Corporate America, got paid an embarrassingly low wage, became a statistic - you know the story. I started dating my little sister's best friend, as well (at my sister's behest), and found out my soul mate was not some stranger I had yet to meet but a girl from my past who had grown to become a woman. We got married in a fairly large ceremony that the two of us planned, and we moved to a new city to begin our life together.

But there are three things that have changed in my life that make me feel like a real man this Thanksgiving. And while you gnaw on your turkey leg or sit bloated and beached in your easy chair, I offer you these things that I am thankful for.

• I am a father - Last July my wife gave me the greatest gift I've ever received, aside from our marriage: my daughter. Everyone says having a child changes your life, but becoming a father is no overnight transition. It's taken the better part of my daughter's 16 months for me to discover what it means to be a father (I think I've boiled it down to abject devotion, unexplainable worry and beaming pride) but I know I'll spend the rest of her life refining that understanding. Regardless, I am thankful for this: last Thanksgiving I was a husband with a baby, and this Thanksgiving I am a father.

• I am a homeowner - About four years ago my grandmother made me the sole heir of my family's ancestral homestead. A plot of land and a smattering of houses in the rolling hills of the Midwest, the inheritance is the product of 50 years of work by my grandparents, great-grandparents and a collection of grand and great-grand aunts and uncles. My grandmother passed away a few years ago, and after an extended occupancy by some extended family, "the Hill" finally came under my control. In August my wife, daughter and I moved in, and I am this Thanksgiving thankful for my warm fireplace, the foresight and hard work of my elders, and for the fact that my daughter is growing up in the same house that I did.

• I am a part of the majority - This is by far one of the most prominent reasons that I now feel like a man. During my teens and early 20s, I wasn't involved in politics or national affairs primarily because I didn't feel like anyone cared about me. The government was a place where old people made sure that America catered to other old people. Even in 2004, after decades of presidential administrations run by aging white men, the DNC offered John Kerry ... another aging white man. But this election, however, has proven to me that we are not a nation of scared Baby Boomers or angry fire-and-brimstone senior citizens. We are a country of Blackberry users, a country of first-person-shooters, MySpace friends and Starbucks Wi-Fi users. Generation X has taken the reins of our culture, and for that I am most certainly thankful.