Last night, after posting my first day's experience with my Hunger Action Month Challenge, I was confronted with another challenge all together: damage control. So to speak.
A friend of mine read my freshly published post and realized that she actually spent less than the national average food stamp allotment and posted the following tweet on her twitter account:
I was crushed! This was the complete, 100% opposite effect that I wanted to have on people! Not to mention the fact that the San Antonio Food Bank had finally contacted me back and invited me to guest blog on their website about my Hunger Action Month Pledge Challenge.
"Cuss!" I thought to myself. "I finally land a pretty cool gig and I've completely screwed it up."
(Which was pretty darn selfish of me, btw)
This morning I finally realized why I was feeling so defensive about my challenge.
This challenge is really personal.
I mean, we're talking food and budgets, money and how we decide for our family. That stuff is really personal.
As soon as I understood why I was reacting the way I was, I realized that it doesn't matter if other people have different experiences or if they react negatively to my post. This Hunger Action Month Pledge that I've challenged myself with? It is exactly that.
MY Hunger Action Month Pledge.
The challenge that I committed to by signing this.
So despite the fact that my sacrifices may seem trivial to some (because I totally understand that there are a lot of people out there who sacrifice much more than bottles of wine, beer and artisan cheese) I'm going to continue on my challenge because there a lot of people like me who are lucky enough not to have to think about budgets when we shop. And who don't think about the food we leave behind on our plates...
And who are the ones who need this experience the most.