What is the meaning of Thanksgiving?

What is the meaning of Thanksgiving?

Speech for Public Speaking Course:

Thursday November 25 is just 18 days away from today. It is the fourth Thursday in November and arguably one of the most important holidays in the US. – Thanksgiving! So why is Thanksgiving so important?

There are several versions about the origination of Thanksgiving, but they all stem from the beginnings of the white settlement of the US.

In 1620 a group, known as the Puritans who were being religiously persecuted sought religious freedom by sailing across the Atlantic on the Mayflower and settling in a strange, new place, now known as the state of Massachusetts .

The First winter was devastating and almost half of the original 102 pilgrims perished. The few that survived were helped by local Indians.

With better luck, the second harvest was bountiful – and the settlers celebrated with a 3 day feast with the Indians as a way of saying thanks for their help in that first brutal winter.

Today, Thanksgiving means different things to different people, but unlike most other American holidays, it is not about consumerism or flashiness.

For some it means eating lots of turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie and then rolling themselves into the family room to continue the holiday festivities by watching football and drinking beer.

For others it might mean the one day of the year in which family all comes together, which may be a good or bad thing. Bu regardless, t the one universal meaning that everyone shares is that Thanksgiving is the one day that we stop to give thanks to the things and people that mean the most to us.

We live such crazy busy lives that we take things for granted – I was suddenly reminded of this when last week, I found out my dad’s cousin unexpectedly passed away. She had four kids, ages ranging from about 21 to 31.

As we sit here tonight, they are at their mom’s viewing saying good-bye for the last time. I will be attending the funeral tomorrow along with my parents, with whom I am fortunate to have a close relationship with, feeling guilty over the fact that my cousins will not be standing there alongside both of their parents as well.

I am so thankful that I have my parents, I have my health and they have theirs. But in our daily lives, how often do we express it?

So I encourage all of you – whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving or not, to, on Thanksgiving Day, just remind yourself exactly what it is you are truly thankful for. If it is a person, tell them, if it is something, simply appreciate it. Because that is what Thanksgiving is truly about. It is about giving thanks.

So what do business school students do??

6:30am, the alarm on my iphone goes off. I hit snooze and roll over. It goes off again, I repeat the pattern again and then again. 7:00am, I finally roll out of bed, get ready and race out the door for the second day of our Career Management Conference. The day kicks off with a ‘Building your brand online’ seminar presented by Dan Schwabel, author of Me 2.0.

I then have a half hour break before my small group mock interviews so I head into the computer lab to print out my resume. I fire off an email to the VP Social of the European Business Club to request a meeting about the European Mixer event I am organizing in November and another to the co-presidents of the General Management and Strategy club to set up an informational interview, as I am interested in taking over their role for next year.

11:00am, I head over to the recruitment center. The place is full of my colleagues, suited up, resumes in hand and waiting for their interviews. Our interviewer, a second year career coach, brings us into a room and we spend an hour and a half being interviewed with instant feedback – I realize I have a lot of practicing to do in the next few months!

12:30pm – I have a study group meeting. Haas is providing free lunches in the courtyard so I pick one up, go to my suit locker to grab the massive roll of paper that is our final project for our Problem Finding Problem Solving class and meet my team – whom I love! We have 30 minutes to go through our roll and ensure our business model canvas and all our design thinking toolkits are included. There is a flurry of Crayola colored markers as we put on the final touches, laughing and joking as we work.

1:30pm I attend another speaker seminar – ‘Learn How to Sell Yourself’

3:00pm, finally a break! As I head into the library, a classmate stops me, “What are you wearing for the Jersey Shore party this Thursday?” We spend about 15 minutes going over the critical details of our costumes – these things are important!

I then excuse myself as I need to finish my journal, a final deliverable for our Problem Finding Problem Solving class. I quickly scribble out a few more ‘reflections’ about the various steps in the design thinking process we have been doing, draw a couple of pictures and rush off to meet my study team again. Tonight is the big night. After spending all of Fall A analyzing a start-up company, its current business model and then coming up with suggestions for a revised one, we finally get a chance to meet the founders, former Haas alum.

We had just learned that they had received an additional $10 million in their second round of VC funding! The company, which provides video ad analytics and serves as a platform to upload video ads on publisher websites, is now breaking even and expected to have $10million in revenue this year.

Now here we were, in a ballroom at Haas, packed with 250 students and rolls of papers displaying business models everywhere and the founders come in. Standing with the four study group teams of 5 each assigned to this company one of my study group members speaks up, ‘Shannon, you know the business model better than anyone. You should present.’ I am slightly nervous because I knew nothing about online advertising until this class and now I am supposed to explain to the founders all about their company and the market?!

I ended up thoroughly enjoying giving the presentation and the night turned out to be the highlight of my first quarter here at Haas. It was exciting to hear how a lot of the ideas we came up with, they had also thought of. They ended up staying for a couple of hours after the presentation and talking directly with two successful entrepreneurs was incredibly inspiring.

Still on a high, I headed to our local on-campus pub, The Bear’s Lair, where Haas students go every Tuesday. It was jam-packed as our very own, Jean Claude Van Band, were playing. People were already crowding in front of the band before they even began the first song. They were incredibly talented. The place was packed and we danced until 2am. Stumbling out in the cool air, I hear someone shout ‘ After-party at my place!” I am too exhausted and head home. It has been another amazing day at Haas.