BLOOMINGTON — In Bloomington, at the home of the Hoosiers, IU freshman Mason Fondo is eager to head home to the left coast, the west coast.
"I think what I'm looking forward to the most is probably seeing my family and my dog," Mason said, "and the food I'm looking forward to as well."
Sitting in a campus courtyard, students Makayla DeVary and Coco Owsley are working on a class project and they can't wait for Thanksgiving.
Coco missed her dog, Frank. And Makayla misses her grandmother.
Makayla hails from Georgetown and Coco is from New Albany.
Both are heading back to their hometowns in southern Indiana for the holiday weekend -- and both expect politics to come up around the dinner table on Thanksgiving, one way or another.
"My family is more Republican," Makayla said, "Personally, I wanted Kamala to win. My grandfather, he likes Trump, so, yeah. I'm mentally preparing myself."
"I know my family is kind of split," Coco said, "Some of them are more Republican. Some of them are more Democrat. Sometimes it can get heated with conversations with politics, but yeah, I just [try to change] the subject."
IU psychology professor Edward Hirt points out the nation is still processing the outcome of the election and anticipating what changes may lie on the horizon.
Professor Hirt offers insight on navigating through this first big family get-together, since an historic and polarizing election.
"There are multiple perspectives on everything," Prof. Hirt said, "I think a lot of times we get into a mindset that there's one way to think about it and everyone else is wrong."
Prof. Hirt offers three pointers to keep in mind.
First, be aware of and accept there are things out of our control.
"If we can accept those things that are beyond our control and just move on to worry about the stuff we can control, I think that gives us at least grounding and then we can make some decisions from that," Prof. Hirt said.
Second, give respect to get respect.
Agree to listen and acknowledge respectful disagreement may be inevitable.
Share ideas and perspectives without adding a value-judgement to every notion.
Third, remember the essence of the holiday.
"To keep in mind just the idea this is a holiday," Prof. Hirt said, "We're here to celebrate each other. To be together. And maybe those things should take precedence in this situation. And maybe this isn't the time or place for some of those other things to happen."
Mason Fondo believes this approach is the one his family will take when they sit down to dinner.
"It's something we don't like to talk about that much," Mason said, "We stray away from it and talk about stuff we are enjoying and things that are going on in our real lives."
"We can always think about the things that divide us," Prof. Hirt said, "I think that was an issue throughout the election, right? The things that divide people. But i think we can also think about the things that bind us together."
The National Library of Medicine cites a study showing politically-diverse Thanksgiving dinners were 35 to 70 minutes shorter than dinners where everyone shared similar political opinions.
