A few weeks ago, I wrote the blog piece “Giving Up What” which I talked about ways we can fast something for lent. I did not talk about what I was going to give up myself…as it was between me and my God then. Since lent is over and all of us people can go back to our regular doings, I thought I may tell you what I gave up and why, and also how it was a struggle to give it up for lent. I also may list some ideas of what I may give up next.
What did I give up for lent? Well (and please do not laugh), I gave up eating CEREALS. Cereals, the one you eat with milk for breakfast. Yes I gave up eating cereals. See, my brother and I love cereals. It is crunchy and it tastes good. We usually eat whole-wheat cheerios or multigrain cheerios. So goes the saying that you give up something you like so much, I decided to forgo cereals. I found out that some people would give up things they don’t really like so that they can enjoy the things they like most, but that is not what lent is about.
The experience had to go through was so bad, but I know it will give you a laugh a little. Imagine, every single day you have to wake up, shower and eat the dry tasteless bread from the toaster, and the worst part is you have to eat it because you gave up cereals that you liked most, for lent. I tried eating bread in various ways, toasted and untoasted. With butter, with peanut butter, with various types of jams, but still, it was a struggle. As soon as Saturday after Good Friday came, ooh me, I ate cereals again like a KING!
It takes too long to prepare bread and milk to take for breakfast, yet it is so easy to prepare cereals. Just get the bowl, add your milk and top it up with cereals or add the cereals and top it up with the milk, just easy like 1, 2, 3, and off you gulp and ready to leave for school. This for some reason annoys our mom as when there is cereals, we do not touch any bread. She one time stopped buying cereals, then we promised her to change and switch between cereals and bread, and she started buying it again.
One thing for sure, eating bread for breakfast taught me to be patient while preparing my breakfast. In a way, I realized bread tastes nice despite the time it takes to prepare. Now that I like bread, I think next year I will be giving up bread. Now I don’t want you guys to think I am being hypocritical, but over these 40 days I have learnt to like bread and I think that if I keep on eating bread and alternating with cereal, soon I will like bread as much as I like cereal.
I also learnt how our mother played her part in our giving up cereals. So as you know I gave up cereal and so I had to eat bread. Well usually I eat my bread with milk with added milo, which is a healthy chocolate flavoring that you can put in milk or water. It is a very good drink, but my mom did not buy milo for the 40 days, so we had to drink plain milk. Well after we ate breakfast on Saturday my mom went to do grocery shopping and bought milo. Why didn’t you buy milo during the lent season? She could have bought it when we were still eating bread alone! I just looked at her and thought “what a mom my brother and I have”.
All in all I, I thank God I had something to eat still, and I think I like bread just a little bit than before.
Angela-Acaye.