This past week was my first Thanksgiving not being home, which was difficult, but I was lucky enough to spend it in Belfast with my Sport Changes Life family. For the past years, Thanksgiving has been a time to see family and friends in Baltimore, as well as a nice break from school. However, now that my family is spread out all across the world, we were only able to celebrate through Facetime and texts between one another. With me in Ireland and my mom on a work trip in Puerto Rico, it was only my dad and sister (and Sam) that got to spend Thanksgiving at our home in Savannah, GA. I was also unable to see all my Baltimore friends and family which makes this my first Thanksgiving ever not being there. This would have been an impossible task, if not for the incredible week I had over here.
I was lucky enough to travel to Belfast for the week and spend time with the Sport Changes Life crew. Getting to see everyone and having us all together again for a couple days was just as great as I had hoped. After a night of media training with Marc, we got to spend Thanksgiving morning helping out at a local homeless shelter. This was an incredible experience and it was great giving back to those who need it. We helped organize donated food and clothes, and as is everything we do as a group, the Victory Scholars thoroughly enjoyed the day. We even got to play an intense game of Clue during our lunch break, which went from joking to serious very quick. Our time at the homeless shelter was followed by picture day at the SCL office. We were all very excited to try on our new gear and everyone looked great repping the SCL clothing. Picture day with Marc was great as always and it really is incredible how good he makes us look with his impressive camera work. Finally the day was finished with a big Thanksgiving dinner that everyone was excited for. Sport Changes Life put on a great event and it was great to have everyone together for this American Holiday. We were all surprised and overwhelmed at the video of our friends and family from home wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving and it was truly the best gift SCL could have given us. The videos from my sister and dad (featuring Sam) were exactly what I needed to make this Thanksgiving away from home a special one. It was tough being away from them this week, but spending Thanksgiving in Belfast with my SCL family was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.
