By Stephanie Holland / Editor in Chief
By Stephanie Holland / Editor in Chief
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A year ago the Viewpoints editing staff held an experiment called “The Vice Project.”
We each gave up a vice for one week and chronicled our reactions.
Well we’re at it again with “The Vice Project 2.”
Like any good sequel we brought back old favorites and added new characters.
This time around the vices included fast food, caffeine and looking in mirrors.
Features Editor Shardai Perry gave up looking in a mirror for an entire week.
Before the project began she expressed her confidence.
“I feel I might be jumping into a pool a bit deeper than I imagine, but the heck with it, I’m confident enough to trust I can swim in any depth, let’s put me to the test and see if I’m floating in the end,” Perry said.
After a few days she discovered something new about herself.
“I feel like my confidence on the inside is growing more, I’m starting to love more than my looks, which I realize may sound a bit conceited, but that’s not it’s intentions,” she said.
Managing Editor Javier Cabrera, who previously gave up sports, decided to give up fast food, an integral part of his diet.
“I think this is going to be harder than giving up sports, because I eat fast food at least twice a day every day of the week. I think I will be tempted to eat fast food as the week goes on,” he said.
While we all tried our best, there were a few slip ups. Cabrera confessed to sneaking a hamburger from Sonic on his second day.
“My streak of not eating fast food ended at one day,” he said.
The idea of this experiment is to test the limits of our will power and to see how important are the things that we think we can’t live without.
There’s also the idea that what constitutes a vice is different for everyone.
Sports Editor Danielle Schmidt took a lot of flak for giving up iced tea. But to her it was an extremely difficult week.
“I know this seems like an easy thing to give up for the project, but for me it is the complete opposite,” Schmidt said. “Everybody else doing this project has made fun of my vice that I have chosen to give up because they see it as an easy task, when it is clearly not.”
Though this may seem like a frivoulous and fun exercise, we approached it seriously because there are parts of the world where living without Facebook or Starbucks is common.
It was an interesting week for all those involved and resulted in surprising revelations for all the participants.