Another (US, yes, other cultures feel free to substitute your own here) Thanksgiving. I don’t really enjoy turkey, I have food issues anyway, feasting is very conflicted.
Then, there is the enforced extended family togetherness, the clueless rightwing folks carrying on vs the suffering vegans. Everyone expected to be happy. This is almost beyond cliché, but it’s real, happens every year.
I spent a decade living 1500 miles from any family and really enjoyed not having to do the holidays. I moved back a few years ago and kept my ways of not participating. My family is a fractured mess of divorce spread over 3 hours of driving if one wanted to partake, and, I am a long time Vegan, And, I am a long time non-alcoholic
My family is cool enough, but I have no interest in celebrating genocide while watching them eat animals and get drunk. I am certainly not going to drive 3 hours in the cold and heavy traffic with jacked up gas prices, with a bunch of drunks out on the road.
I told them, pick any other day for any other reason and I would love to come hang.