Lent never looked the way it was supposed to for me. While everyone else talked about fasting as a spiritual practice, I was quietly using it to hide a struggle I didn’t know how to name. It took years of honesty, healing, and unlearning to finally understand what Lent was meant to be and what it was never meant to become.

Ever since I was a child, I always felt different. I was the firstborn, a chubby, bulky baby. Back then, everyone said it was cute. My parents thought it was adorable, too. But what was unfortunate was that I grew up with that same body. And as I got older, people no longer found it cute. At school, I was constantly laughed at. My weight, my stomach, always something to point out. I was criticized and made to feel like my body was wrong. I tried to build confidence. I really