Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

Five years ago, we started what has become a tradition: Turning over this space to a fellow Team Schein Member (TSM) to share a reflection on the meaning of Thanksgiving. Each story provides a unique perspective on the holiday from a TSM who has lived outside the United States.

This year’s story comes from my colleague Reynaldo Zamora, a TSM for six years whose family, like mine, fled danger for the promise of a better life. We are so pleased to share Rey’s experience of Thanksgiving.

Here is his story:?

It was 1993 — Nicaragua was rife with civil unrest and many families feared for the safety of their children. I was five when my mother flew from Nicaragua to Miami, Florida, with the four youngest of her nine children, the maximum the United States gave her approval for. Despite the distressing experience of being separated from her other children and extended family, my mother was grateful for the opportunity presented to us: a second chance. I distinctly remember my mother pointing outside the airplane window, excited to show me the ocean and the tiny farmlands below, to distract us from the fact that we had nothing but the clothes on our backs.

Upon arrival, the five of us were crammed into a small studio apartment with two beds. What followed were months of uncertainty, rootlessness, and hunger. We reached out to local organizations for assistance and were welcomed with open arms. These same organizations hosted many events, one of which I still remember to this day: “La Fiesta de Accion de Gracias,” or Thanksgiving Day Party, a majorly U.S-centric cultural event embraced and celebrated by our Hispanic and Latin American neighbors.

"That Thanksgiving Day marked a turning point for my family ..."

A luncheon was hosted in the courtyard of a church, filled with tables and food booths from every country you could think of, as well as very large “chickens” – which, unbeknownst to me, then a five-year-old, were actually turkeys. That Thanksgiving Day marked a turning point for my family, in that we made lifelong friends, met my eventual godparents, and joined a community to which we found belonging. It was a break from the chaos, a moment of appreciation, un acción de gracias. ?

Since then, I have had countless things to be thankful for. I became a U.S. citizen last year, graduated college – the first in my family – at the top of the class as a business administration major at SUNY Farmingdale last spring, landed a new, fulfilling, and challenging role as an analyst at Henry Schein this past summer, and lastly, my first child, a baby girl, was born to my wife and me this past October. I am grateful every day for the opportunities and challenges in my life, and Thanksgiving marks the day my family and friends share our stories, to connect, appreciate, and be thankful.?

In the spirit of “La Fiesta de Accion de Gracias,” I urge all who celebrate to share that magic with your friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and neighbors, so as to not lose what makes it special: the community.