1. Speaking in a foreign language while intoxicated:
Practice makes perfect when you’re trying to learn another language, and the confidence granted by a couple of drinks eliminates the shyness you feel in French class. Look at it as an opportunity to broaden your vocabulary beyond the lyrics to “Lady Marmalade.”
2. Harry Potter references:
Trying to explain the residential college system without saying the phrase, “Well, you know how in Harry Potter, they have Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, right?” will be the ultimate exercise in creativity.
3. Looking at your reflection in shop windows:
No, “admiring the window display” is not an acceptable excuse for breaking this one.
4. Giving up:
You’ll sound really clever when you explain your paradoxically meta-Lent resolution to give up giving up. The philosophical discussions that will result from this one are well worth the 40 days of uncertainty you’ll face as you wonder whether you’ve already broken your pledge by creating it.
5. “Don’t Stop Believin’:”
This pledge is really a two-for-one deal; you’ll have to cut back on your drinking as well if you ever hope to make it through 40 nights without Journey. If this just isn’t an option, there’s also “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
6. Telling other people about how terrible next week is going to be for you:
Instead, try eating the chocolate that your friends all gave up for Lent; it will relieve the same amount of stress and annoy your friends just as much.
7. Original Tart:
We at the YDN Mag would never suggest going cold turkey from Froyoworld (we need to keep business booming during the harsh winter months!).But you owe it to yourself to break out of the Original Tart-strawberries-yogurt chips-dash of sprinkles rut you’ve been in ever since they stopped serving Red Velvet.
8. Chicken Tender Day:
If enough people adopt this one, maybe there will be enough chicken tenders to feed the poor souls who have class until 12:50 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
9. Passing photo 86 during a Facebook stalking session:
Lent is a time when many people reevaluate their addictions to social media, questioning their dependency on technology to interact with friends. But if you can’t bear the idea of giving up Facebook, you can at least abandon some of the self-hatred you feel when you realize you’ve been refreshing social networking sites for 4 hours.
10. James Franco:
Enough said. A challenge for only the most devout Catholics.