Emily Leverone | On 02, May 2016

I didn’t sleep for close to two days. It was cold. Dark. I was starving. I had to put in hours of manual labor. I had to fight off enemies who were carrying nerf guns. It was hell…

I had so much fun!

Hudson Catholic hosted a 30-hour famine for junior and senior students on Friday, April 15. We were not allowed any phones or food from 12:30 pm on Friday until 5:30 pm on Saturday.

A few hours into the famine, Mrs. Vaccari showed us a video about how so many go hungry for hours on end, yet remain grateful for what they do have. This really spoke to us, we students who have so much, including the basic necessities like 3 meals a day plus clothing, not to mention our phones and iPads.

Around 11, I thought I was going to get some beauty sleep, but then I found out that we were going to play games in groups of three. Before everyone got together for small group activities, we all sat in a circle to get to know each other. The task was to think of words that describe us beginning with the letters in our name. I wrote E for “energetic”, M for “mean”, I for “I am crazy”, L for “lazy”, and Y for “Yaaas!”

We played some memory games (of course my team won). Then we had to build a tower with just cups and plates (again, of course my team won). Finally, we had to work as a team to untie a knot from a rope but only with one hand and without letting go of the rope (okay, my team didn’t win that one).

Besides all the crankiness and  crazy game playing, I actually learned why we were doing this 30-hour famine. It was to show us kids not to take food for granted and to show us that in some parts of the world, starving children wake up every day starving, and still manage to go to work. It made me feel bad because I was complaining that I hadn’t eaten in a few hours when there are kids out there who have gone days or months without eating. Our teachers were trying to show us the pain that they feel on a daily basis.

Once I understood the true meaning of the event, my eyes were wide open, even when I finally fell asleep.