There is one day of the year when all scales disappear and all health concerns are nonexistent. One day when people across the country sit at their crowded dinner tables awaiting the moment when they can stuff their faces with traditional foods such as turkey, yams and pie. This year, Thanksgiving break has been stretched from a total of five days to nine days. The newly implemented change in length has allowed people to spend more time with family as well as traveling.

“I am considering traveling for the first time,” counselor Becky Heslep said. “I would like to go to Boston, or I think Eureka Springs in Arkansas would be fun because of the fall foliage. Nothing too huge, but because we have all that time it might be fun.”

Parent-teacher meeting days have been incorporated into different areas, allowing students to have longer breaks. According to Heslep, two days that have traditionally been at the end of the first six weeks are no longer on the calendar. These days have been moved towards the longer break. 

“That’s a long time to get for Thanksgiving,” Heslep said. “It’ll be interesting to see if people like to have a week.”

According to Heslep, there are some concerns with having a longer break. Students come back from breaks after the Dec. 1 application deadline of some colleges. Since the staff as well as students will be off on break, counselors will not be able to send the students their transcripts during this time.

“This means all of the application processes need to be taken care of before the break,” Heslep said. “It’s always heart breaking when I’m at home getting emails from students asking if I can get transcripts today and I tell them I don’t have it, I’m away. That’s a big change this year. I foresee that being a problem.”

The longer break allows students to spend less time with from projects and tests and more with family that is not always available to them. Senior Kalee Raste has normally celebrated Thanksgiving at home although a majority of her relatives live in Idaho. This is the first year she will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Idaho.

“Now that we have an entire week plus the weekends, we can travel up to Idaho and visit the attractions such as Yellowstone National Park,” Raste said. “We can also spend more quality time with my siblings and extended family.”

Although college deadlines are creeping up on Dec. 1, Raste said she is not worried about missing her deadline because she plans on finishing her application ahead of time.

“I love the changes, I love that it gives us more time away from school and more time to spend with family and friends,” Raste said. “I just hope that we aren’t assigned a lot of homework.”