I didn’t fast today. When you are a girl, you are exempt at certainperiods.

Anyway, my not fasting led me to a somber and perhaps unbearably sad realization.

For the past two weeks that I have been fasting, I ceased to exist as a person and became distilled down to my needs. The hunger, the thirst - it strips away your humanity. You exist with only the fulfillment of your hunger as your entire world.

I am not being preachy or you know, holier than thou. My parents, family, elders tell me that I should have the stiff upper lip, do not feel the hunger, do not admit to it and all that jazz. But I do. I did. I looked into the mirror today and finally saw myself. I took a deep breath and it wasn’t edged with hysteria.

Then I thought about those people who are not fasting by choice, whose hunger is like a living beast inside of them, ready to strike to do anything that gains them fulfillment. There are some who will do anything to get rid of the hunger.

And today I understood them.

And there are others who will do things in spite of the hunger. They will sacrifice their hunger for their children/relative/loved one.

I don’t know if I could do that. I’d like to say I could. But I don’t know for certain that I could.

But some people do. And those people amaze me.