24 Hour Fast

My latest assignment from my Intro class is a 24 Hour Fast from all mass media(books, internet, music, newspaper, TV, movies, etc), which I am then supposed to write about in my next response essay, describing how I felt throughout.

This sounds incredibly daunting.

24 hours where the sound that wakes me is a buzzer, or my mom, instead of the CD of my choice. 24 hours without my headphones, instant messenger, comics, television, or weather channel. 24 hours where the only reasons why I would be online or reading is for school. 24 hours where, if I want to talk to someone, I will have to pick up a phone and actually talk, as opposed to signing onto AIM. And I really, really hate talking on the phone.

I wonder if my prof knows that this assignment coincides with Yom Kippur? So not only do I have to go 24 hours without food or drink this weekend, but I have to pick a day where I have to avoid all the things that I do to avoid school? (The assignment isn't due until Wednesday, so I don't have to go without media and food at the same time, but it amuses me that, while some students are going without food for 24 hours on campus, others are going without any form of mass media for 24 hours.)

In some ways, I have thought about doing something similar in the past-avoiding television and other distractions for a day- but never to find out my reaction to being deprived of my entertainment, and I would never, ever include music in the group of things to avoid for the day. Usually, I would do something like that so I could get schoolwork done, and even then, I wouldn't pursue it so seriously. Music is such a serious, complete part of my life that the deprivation from that alone will endlessly aggravate me.

My brothers, however, will love knowing that I get absolutely no say in what is on the TV at any point for a day. They will revel in this, because they are brothers and I am the older sister, and if there is one thing they love, it is driving me up a wall.

It should be an interesting weekend.