Thanksgiving break, a pure week of autumnal bliss. However, there is life outside binge-watching Stranger Things by yourself and sending “HMU,” streaks on Snapchat, and here are some ideas about how the students should spend their Thanksgiving break. 

1. Spend time with family: It can be siblings, the great-uncle who makes inappropriate jokes, or the group of old women you have no idea how you are related to. Get to know the people you do not know very well. You never know what sage advice your third cousin twice removed may hold. 
2. Pinterest your heart out: Pinterest can come across as a feminine website, but that is only because not everyone has seen all it has to offer. Pinterest has great recipes to make with friends and family, fun crafts for sibling bonding, or finding what tattoo you want when you turn eighteen. The possibilities are endless. 
3. Get a jump on schoolwork: Just because school is out does not mean it stops existing. When break is over, there will be work to be done and things to learn. So why not get ahead of the curve, and be prepared? Work on things that need to be worked on. Complete extra-credit assignments to help bump up your grade, or just know what you are learning when school starts, so you will not get lost in a tidal wave of new information. 
4. Cook or bake: you will eventually have to move away from home, which means knowing the basics of cooking. No one expects a teen to be the next Rachael Ray, but just knowing how to turn on the oven is a big step. Have your grandmother teach you how to make one of her favorite recipes. That is better for you than the mountains of Ramen noodles you will inevitably subsist on in college.   
5. Do something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside: Donate to a charity, help at a soup kitchen, donate clothes to a homeless shelter, anything that benefits someone other than you. It can change someone’s life and even change yours. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to get rid of old clothes from your closet and make room for the new clothes you might get for Christmas.  

Whether you end up donating clothes to a charity, or burning food with family because you are a millennial and probably do not know how to cook, do something productive over Thanksgiving break. You may never know whose life you may change or how your life will change.