Being Environmentally Conscious
This semester I joined two environmental classes and I want to add, I wasn’t interested in the environment. I mean, I am don’t get me wrong, I want to ‘Save The Planet’ tm as much as the next person. But it was never on my top priority. Passing my classes figuring out what I’m going to do once I’m out of college was always more important so if I screwed over nature along the way, well I guess I screwed nature.
But as the semester continued, I couldn’t help but stop and think about the environment and what I could do. How could I make an impact on the planet and do my part. Clearly I would do something right?
Well I didn’t do anything much different that before. I still bought plastic water bottles and sodas, I still let some receipt papers fly off in the wind because I didn’t want to chase after them, and I rarely picked up the trash I saw on the sidewalks of the campus. I did write about it though so that’s something I guess. The point is though, as much as I thought about the environment as much as I read about it, I didn’t even try to change my ways. Why? Because I’m too used to it and trying to change an aspect of my life felt more trouble than it was worth.
It bothered me how little things have changed even though I know more than before. Frustrating to the point that all I can think is, why? Why haven’t I done anything different? Why don’t I try harder? Why don’t I do something? Anything? This planet is all we have yet I’m not taking care of it.
But then I thought, the more I think about it, the more I keep saying ‘today I’ll help out the environment,’ I never do it. It’s not part of my schedule. By doing all of this it would just end up being an inconvenience to me. More stress than I really needed.
So I started to think what do I do now that is already environmentally decent. Well, whenever we get the packs of sodas that come in the plastic rings, I cut them up so they don’t end up on some poor animals neck. I reused all the plastic bags I get when I buy from stores. Sometimes instead of taking a bus, I walk back to my car even though it’s longer to do that and more tiring.
But the thing about all of these are, I don’t think about it. Cutting the plastic rings is routine for me when we get them. It be a waste to just toss out the plastic bags so we keep them for later use. Walking is sometimes more fun than just standing in a crowded bus where I could get elbowed in the side repeatedly.
I think that, when it comes to being more environmentally sound, it’s harder to just go ‘I’m going to take care of the environment’ and just up and do it. Some people are able to, which is fantastic and congratulations to those people, but for other people like myself it’s hard to change your daily rituals.
There’s nothing wrong with taking small steps to being environmentally conscious. Sometimes that might be the better option than doing absolutely nothing at all.
I’m not the best environmentalist and I’m not trying too hard to be. Taking a few steps at a time is how I’m going to help this planet. Try to teach others, get better habits, and we’ll see what happens from there. In the future I hope I’m able to take better care of our planet. Until then, I’m going to try to add a new habit into my life. Maybe I’ll start a rain barrel or try composting.
