Home away from home during the holidays

BY LESLIE POSADOS / Contributing Writer

The holiday season is right around the corner, and many Tarleton State University students and faculty face the reality of being unable to go home.
 

Janet Bell, a Spanish professor at Tarleton, has not spent the holidays with her family in Puerto Rico since 2021.
 

“The reason I don’t go there anymore is because we had to bring my mother-in-law here to the States since she has health issues,” Bell said.
 

Although Bell has her son, husband, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and two grandkids in Fort Worth, the longing for a holiday spent in Puerto Rico doesn’t fade away.
“It’s kind of sad, really, not being able to spend time there with the family,” Bell said. “In Puerto Rico, it’s kind of like a party all the time.”
 

To help ease the homesickness Bell feels during the holidays, she shared the traditions they incorporate here in the U.S. Bell recreates traditional foods, such as roasted pork, rice with pigeon meat and a drink called Coquito.
 

“Because the only thing I can do is talk to my family over the phone, my sister and I try to create a kind of atmosphere, like if we were in Puerto Rico, so it can kind of be the same,” Bell said.
 

Sharing a similar story is Allison Jones, a student at Tarleton who spends the holiday season a bit differently. 
 

Instead of going home to Tennessee for the holidays, her parents brought the holidays to Stephenville.
 

“I usually stay here, but my parents moved here with me,” Jones said.
 

For many the holidays are an opportunity to return home and reconnect with family. 
 

However for others the reality of being away from family during the season is a challenge they must adapt to.
 

Bella Rose, a senior at Tarleton State, has not been home for Thanksgiving in the past two years, but she is not missing out on the holiday season entirely.
 

“I do go home for Christmas break for a few weeks,” Rose said.
 

While Thanksgiving has been spent in Stephenville for the past couple of years, Christmas break is a time that Rose counts on to reconnect with family and friends back home in Florida.