I’ve stopped drinking pop for Lent this year. If you live on either coast, that means I’m having no soda; if you’re from the South, Coke is off-limits for me. For most of my life, I’ve not been into Christian tradition nor the Church calender. In high school around this time of year, I abstained from abstaining because I felt that being different in my Catholic school was an important part of my non-denominational status.

However, I’ve slowly reconsidered my anti-tradition stance, and this isn’t the first time I’ve made use of Lent to sacrifice something, small though it is. I like pop, especially Vault, and I’ve grown accustomed to having some a couple times per week. Now that I’ve given it up, I find that I think about drinking pop a lot more, so the reminder function of Lent is really working for me.

I don’t know that I’ll always give up something between Ash Wednesday and Easter, but it’s neat this year. Maybe I won’t even want pop when Easter arrives; I’ve gone a year without having any before, and that felt good for some reason (it burned when I drank some again). In any case, it feels good to be a part of the Lenten tradition for once. Man, I really miss Vault though…especially the red kind.