Lent

It's that time of year again...you guessed it, LENT! Woohoo!

For those of you who don't know, Lent is the 40(ish) days between Ash Wednesday (hint, today) and Easter Sunday. It is a time of prayer, reflection, sacrifice, and fasting. As a Catholic, I have been participating in Lent my entire life. Up until recently, all that meant was giving up chocolate for 40(ish) days and then pigging out Easter Sunday. But now I feel like I'm ready for the Big Kid Lent--you know, the adult kind that actually means something. Basically what that means is that I will be following through with the fasting, prayer, and reflection portions of Lent that I have neglected in the past. By taking a more grown-up view of Lent this year, I am hoping to contribute to my goal of Doing Something.

You are required to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday during Lent between the ages of 18 and 59. This is actually pretty awesome, because up until yesterday I thought you had to fast every day, and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle that. I can do two days. Fasting involves eating one normal sized meal and two small meals that cannot equal your normal meal combined. You also can't snack in between. So you won't really go hungry, but it would be slightly uncomfortable for someone like me who enjoys snacking throughout the day. You are also not allowed to eat meat on fridays during Lent. My dad usually 'forgets' and has a meatball sub for lunch at work, but I've been pretty good about this rule for a few years now.

The prayer and reflection portions of Lent are pretty self explanatory. We are called to pray all the time, but maybe make extra effort during Lent. We are also called to reflect on our lives and our faith, which often leads to people flooding the confessional to cleanse themselves of their sins. Lent is such a happy time.

The most interesting part of Lent is the sacrifice portion. And no, I don't mean goats and chickens. Sacrifice during Lent is about giving up something you enjoy, or giving up a bad habit that holds you back, so that you can reflect on Jesus' suffering on the cross, the suffering in the world as a whole, and the changes needed within yourself. In the past, I have always given up chocolate. I'm still giving up chocolate this year, but I've decided to add negativity to the list--it seems like a pretty grown-up thing to give up. This means no cursing, no complaining, no gossiping, no whining, no making fun of my friend Whitney (hardest one, I swear), and no bad song lyrics. I have a propensity to get in a bad mood and then tell everyone about it, which isn't good. I feel like this Lent will be a good opportunity for me to decrease the amount of negativity in the world, the little bit of Worldsuck I'm contributing to. Phoebe Buffay from Friends would tell me I was 'cleansing my aura' or something. I think it's a good thing.

Lots of people give up chocolate for Lent. It's like, the thing to do. Partly because it's so easy and partly because it makes people feel a little healthier. Other popular things to give up for Lent are: junk food, soda, Facebook, meat, tv, cursing, or, my brother's favorite, homework. My dad gives up Lent. The men in my family are truly gems.

A really fun thing to do to the people who give up Facebook for Lent is to rally your friends together and do everything you can to give them as many notifications as possible by Easter. Poke them. Write on their wall. Tag them in every photo you can find. Tag them in all your statuses. I saw one girl post a paragraph from her history textbook on her friends wall one word at a time. Do that. They get pissed on Easter, but it makes them feel kind of loved too. And you can have really embarrassing photos of them up all Lent that they won't even know about. Fun times.

Another way I'm going to make this Lent an official grown-up event is by not skipping the Sundays. Technically, Lent is 40 days if you take out the Sundays, meaning that I could technically eat chocolate and bitch to my hearts content on the sabbath...but that kinda feels like cheating, doesn't it? So I'm not doing it this year! It will truly be a chocolate-free Lent!

If you have any questions about Lent you can go here, it's pretty legit and does a way better job of explaining things than I ever could.

Annndd in case you were wondering, I have drawn my second face! It is only marginally better than the first.

Her name is Edith Walters and she is a 12-year-old girl at her first Clemson Football Game. Don't judge me, please. It's Lent, so say nice things.

I am listening to I Like it Like That by Hot Chelle Rae. It's so catchy!