Taste-bud Cinema

I find myself looking for a way to connect. People are all around me and they have a story I am yet to understand. I look at my roommate and see that she has a past and a tradition engraved within her that is different from mine. I find that college community is different from my place back home. There is no Halloween dinner with family or taking baby brothers and cousins’ trick- or –treating. There is no student Christmas celebration over December. Instead students are sent home, tradition isn’t established here. Almost Thanksgiving and I will be going home. The only difference for this holiday is that my wisdom teeth will be taken out and I have to head home early. This Thanksgiving my cheeks will be puffy but not from the mashed potatoes and turkey shoved into my mouth, rather from the swollen gums of yanked out unused teeth, stuffed full of gauze and saliva, possibly blood. The melted browned butter oozing over the mountains of mashed potatoes that smells of roasted garlic and pepper. Lightly browned turkey cooked for hours and freshly baked pies guarded by grandma with a spoon, protecting each pie from greedy grandkids. But oh that melted browned butter.