It was a cloudy Wednesday morning. As I was making my way to the Rampage office, passing all the beautiful faces of my fellow FCC students, I noticed something weird; a few of those beautiful faces were sporting massive black smudges.

Something resembling dirt was smeared across their foreheads, and they looked like they had been working in a coal mine and neglected to wash up. Then it hit me — it was Ash Wednesday and Lent had begun.

Being a Filipino, I was automatically initiated into the the Roman Catholic Church and forced into an eternity of Sunday masses.

I used to hate going when I was younger, but either they put something in the wine or I had truly found God’s grace; I find it ok now and have even told myself I thoroughly enjoy going.

Lent is probably one of my favorite Christian traditions because I love seeing everyone fail in their lenten resolutions. For those heathens out there, Lent honors the 40 days Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness, fasting and saying “nah” to each of the Devil’s temptations.

I don’t really understand what is expected of me during the Lent season, as some of the tradition has been lost through the evolution of modern society. The idea, however, is to give up something for 40 days .

Some people give up eating chocolate or red meat, but most people just chooses one arbitrary activity or thing, like fast food or soda, that God might like for them to give up for 40 days. I say, if they want their faith really tested, they can give up meth, but only for 40 days, after which they can go back to doing methamphetamines.

In my family, typically the only real Lenten tradition we have is that every Friday we do not eat meat. Instead we eat fish. I asked my mom if she was giving up anything specific and she replied that she was going to stop shopping for herself. This conversation happened three days after Lent began, showing how good Catholics we are.

I decided that I should probably stop watching porn for the whole Lenten season. I thought it was going to be easy, but it wasn’t. I lasted as long as I expected, which wasn’t very long. Now I’m back to square one, and I still haven’t picked what to give up for Lent.

I decided to go to the one place I can truly count on in times of trouble. I googled “what to give up for lent.” Lo and behold, I found statistics on what people are giving up this year, according to Twitter.

The list is an amazing statement about the human condition as well as our generation. Number one is school. I would love to give up school, but my anxiety about becoming a joyful hobo, stops me from going down that path.; I would rather be writing for a newspaper, than sleeping on one.

Scanning down the list, there were just too many things I couldn’t see myself giving up (chocolate, twitter, fast food) and some too unrealistic (coffee, homework, F**kboys). At this point, God is telling me to say something or he’s going to give up on me.

I don’t have anything to give up except Lent itself. I give up on trying to find something to give up for Lent. And that will probably last for more than 40 days.