First-year biology student Rabeeya Asif was in a ghost town.
The streets were empty, the coffee shops void of almost any people except employees, the Central Cost air was brisk and piercing.
Yet it was Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s campus—normally bustling and overflowing with student activity—during Asif’s Thanksgiving break.
“It was weird,” Asif—now a fourth year—recalled. “I’d never seen SLO ever empty like that.”
What led to this isolating and surreal experience? Well, she couldn’t make it home that year for Thanksgiving. Asif hasn’t been able to go home to Washington state, where she was raised and where most of her family still live, until this year.
“It was weird because it was very peaceful yet saddening because you watch all your hometown friends going back for the break,” she said. “You miss those traditions that get started when everyone kind of convenes in your hometown during that Thanksgiving break.”
As with most things for out-of-state students, Asif said, the main culprit of that lack of return home was the sheer cost of flying out of the SLO airport for the holidays.
“It did certainly [feel] like an equity thing at the time because a flight home to Washington was like $600 at the cheapest,” she said. “It is ridiculous that out-of-state, and even some in-state students, have to choose between Thanksgiving and winter break purely out of cost.”
For her first year, Asif said it was isolating but she made it work with the help of her mom and some internal urges to get out and explore a town that was still so new to her.
“If I remember correctly, I think my mom ordered me a Thanksgiving dinner from Sprouts or Whole Foods and they delivered it to my dorm,” she said with a laugh. “But I did take it as like a real break, I mean I got campus all to myself for my first year and just had the ability to walk around and take in everything without the people.”
In years since, Asif has learned to embrace being more of a local during this season and to take advantage of the slower pace to prepare for her final exams, which often fall a few weeks after Thanksgiving.
“Coffee shops are kind of like my holy grail at all times for studying, so when I have these moments where I feel like SLO belongs to me because there’s just no one there, as cheesy as that sounds,” she said. “It’s become my grind time to just be myself and study.”
In-state students like Sacramento-area raised Andy Sherar, now a Cal Poly alumnus who lives in San Luis Obispo, went through a similar experience and learned to embrace the tranquility and friends he made while in town for the holidays.
“I honestly kind of loved it,” Sherar said with a laugh. “I spent every Thanksgiving here, and it made it special, especially when I was spending it with people who came to the same conclusion about it as me.”
One of the bigger conclusions he and his peers from out of the area drew was how they could break traditional holiday expectations and establish their own.
“It gave me the perspective of, wow these are people that I’m not necessarily having to be around as opposed to the traditional Thanksgiving—not that I mind being around my family—and that choice of being around friends is very nice,” Sherar said. “It allowed us to do a ton of different things.”
Some of those new choices included hand-rolling sushi for Thanksgiving dinner. Another was making mulled wine over the stovetop. These experiences were with different people each year depending on who was new to the group or who stayed behind that season.
“The common factor at all of these was the people out of state, and in the state, that really couldn’t go home due to travel costs,” Sherar said. “Especially when you have Christmas around the corner, most people had to opt for that.”
He and Asif both encourage those who are in the same boat to use being stranded in SLO as an opportunity to try new things.
“You can look at it as, ‘It sucks, I’m not with my family,’ and the isolating feelings that follow, but there is not going to be many times in SLO for students to experience the city for what it is and see the places they might never see,” Asif said. “Take advantage of this time because this is where the memories that last a lifetime are made.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Adrian Vincent Rosas at arosas@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Holiday Guide 2023.