Lonely Thanksgiving

Facing freezing weather in a nearly deserted college campus, Mike opens up about his dislike of the holiday season and the profound loneliness it amplifies, seeing the vast, empty campus green around him as a visual metaphor for the isolation he's felt while unhoused.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. This is Mike George coming at you live uh on this Thursday, 27 November 2025, which is in fact American Thanksgiving Day or I should say American Thanksgiving night at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Before I get really into the weeds of this post, I'm going to offer a programming note here for some of you viewers out there who might have been expecting a message of gratitude and thankfulness — the giving of thanks. I will politely refer you to one of several of my previous posts, particularly the one about gratitude. And yeah, I think I think it's even in the title — pretty self-explanatory.

Bravado in the Cold

I need to get myself adjusted once again. And I have not enough hands and too much shit on me. So, and also too many elements and too many obstacles for unforeseen. There we go. Had to put on my glove cuz Lord knows it is freezing out here. Specifically, I would say in the range of -2 or -3° outside, which I guess, when we zoom out is kind of is actually pretty seasonal. Nonetheless, I find myself slightly exposed to these elements —enough so to not really be pleasantly comfortable with this temperature range as I might be in a month from now when I have some more robust leggings and my steeltoed winter boots.

Solitude in an Empty Campus

I hate the holidays. I've somehow found myself in this funny little circumstance of just hating the holidays. I need not look further than the campus around me of The Ohio State University to see a metaphor of the sense of loneliness that almost routinely permeates my life here. Actually this is quite a a sight to behold. I don't know if anybody can appreciate how sparse the campus of the largest university in the world or at least our nation is. But I would say within my my line of sight standing in the middle of The Oval. I can see maybe like 5 people total in a campus of roughly 60,000 students.

Comparing & Coping

It’s almost sad how routine it's become for me to feel this way — the sense of loneliness and all the little reminders when I look around me and see other people enjoying themselves with their loved ones. It's sad to consider how accustomed I've become — how jaded — with just that pall of loneliness that I feel at this time of year. And then of course, there's always that “keeping up with the Joneses” phenomenon of comparing myself to others — which bring about the nagging reminders that I'm alone in this world of mine.

The last several posts have been pretty cheerful and optimistic somehow — almost in a stubborn way. And it’s been the case that I have been determined to not be depressed throughout this whole saga. Call it some futile sense of pride that I’m trying to cling onto throughout this whole mess.

Despite all those things, I am proud in a fucked up way that I have made it through what is becoming an embarrassing and depressing amount of time in this sabbatical — which is the term I use to politely describe my past 3 years of unhousedness.

And you know, every time I have one of these terrible days of just hating my life and hating the world, it seems I resort to this routine that I've developed to cheer myself up with the same talking points. And if you want to know those talking points, I'll again direct you to my previous posts, in which you can almost hear in my own voice and see in my demeanor the lengths to which I go, just to get up in the morning and face another day of bullshit that I didn't need, including obstacles, fuckups, and shitty people — all resulting in a day in which nothing material or productive gets done in my life — namely me getting a job.

Finding Angels on the Street

It would be easy for me to just blame all my woes on other people. I think many of those quips have been quite frankly the truth of the matter. But I will impart this nugget of gratitude into this post, since it is Thanksgiving after all. And since the last year or two of my time on the streets have indeed led me to meet some wonderful people — many of whom I consider angels in my life. Many of them have been extremely selfless and even more importantly to me — they had some faith in me. They believed in me on some level in which they decided to befriend me in the first place and perhaps even decided to offer their hand or even their pocketbook to help me. And again, I'll refer you to my previous videos to espouse my gratitude in those individuals.

Heartbreak and Disillusionment

That having been said though, as I sort of zoom out of these past 2 years and look at the totality of the people in my life — including my blood relatives, my family, my chosen family, some of the friends in my life that have been in my life since my childhood — it really just fills me with heartbreak and a lot of anger to reflect on what remains among the people in my life in which I’ve invested in the past, during happier and more prosperous days in my life.

When I look at the totality of my life and really try to see the big picture of who amongst the people in my life I've really invested like long term in and how many of those people are still in my life — notably how many even just pick up the phone when I call, or even how many of them respond when I say when I'm in a situation where I need help — it’s paints a pretty abysmal picture.

(Encounters and greets his friend Jay on campus)

Hello! Speaking of joyful people in my recent life…

(to Jay)
I'm doing a Facebook live. Uh but no, no, no, no. But what are you up to here? Okay, the kids can wait. I I owe them nothing. They don't pay money for this bullshit.

So, bye for now. Happy Thanksgiving. Take care of yourselves. take care of somebody else, and don't be an asshole.