Natasha Goodell discusses her time fasting for Ramadan

Natasha Goodell/The Oklahoma Daily

Children all over the world are starving; I realized a lot of my selfishness Tuesday as I took part in Think Fast, an event sponsored by the Muslim Student Association in which they encouraged everyone to take part in fasting for a day. At the end of the day we all donated the money we would have spent on lunch to the Norman Food Bank that provides food for many families and children who are without this necessity on a daily basis.

Fasting is very difficult. Throughout the day, I was continually motivating myself to keep pushing through and not allowing myself to eat or drink anything throughout the day.

Typically, Muslims fasting for Ramadan wake up in the early morning hours, 4:30 to 5 a.m. to eat some food for the day and by 5:30 a.m. the fasting begins. Originally I had planned to wake up early in the morning to eat something, but somehow I managed to sleep until 8:30 a.m. and not get my breakfast and water for the day. I was determined to get through it, nevertheless.

This experience really taught me a lot about being grateful for what I have and to not take advantage of that. God has blessed me in ways so that I may be a blessing to others and I really need to remember that. I am not Muslim, but I do respect their discipline and dedication to their faith. I was excited to have the opportunity to really reflect and pray to God in my Christian faith. Although I do this on a regular basis, fasting really does have a way of getting you to really think about things in your life, attitudes you hold and the selfish needs and desires we have. It’s a hard lesson, but well worth the hard work.

Here are some of the things I experienced throughout the day as I fasted for the Think Fast event during Ramadan:

Time Log:

8:30 a.m.- I woke up and found myself running away from my roommate’s desk as I noticed the bag of pretzels left open on her desk from the night before. (I later consumed the pretzels as I was finding things in the room to eat after a long day with an empty stomach).

9:00-10:50 a.m.- Sitting in my professional writing class I could feel and hear my stomach growling and I was really hoping it wasn’t disturbing my fellow classmates.

10:54 a.m.- “I am so hungry.”

11:15 a.m.- as I’m walking to the North Oval with a camera from the newsroom so I could get the breaking news on campus (just a fire in the chemistry lab), I was so thirsty.

11:43 a.m.- “Only eight more hours!! Kids go without food all the time, which is so terrible, but surely I can push through for this one day.”

1:00 p.m.- Being a Panera Associate, I had to run some errands and go to my job. The food is very delicious and is especially tempting if you haven’t had anything to eat and are trying to resist food.

Once I survived the morning and lunchtime, I began to really reflect on what it means to fast and why people do this. I know for Muslims, this is a tradition that they have had for a very long time. I also know a lot about this tradition is about self-reflection.

I definitely did a lot of self-reflection and found that, as Americans, we are very selfish people. This is something I think we really need to work on.