Molly Mishler

I enjoyed challenging myself slightly more this week by adding new challenges from the waste and transportation categories. I chose to drive less and reduce my use of plastic bags and use a reusable bag. Many of the challenges to pick from this week were not very feasible for us to do now or may not apply to us as we are living on a college campus. However, these were two I felt I could work on and were relevant as I have a car on campus and I buy groceries about once a week or so. The one time challenge was interesting as well as I learned more about sustainable fashion. I was able to read about the effects of the fashion industry on the environment and learn ways to practice to be more sustainable when thinking about purchasing clothes. It was surprising to learn about just how many clothes are produced every year and how many of these clothes go to waste. It was a shocking number. 
At school it is easy for me to drive less especially since this campus is small and everything is within a short walking distance. However, at home, it is almost impossible to get anywhere without driving. Therefore, I think it would be very difficult to drive less when I am home as I live in an area that borders on being suburban and rural. Everyone in my area has to rely on cars to get places as many of thee stores, restaurants, etc. are not within walking distance. 
I do not think I can reasonably make the change to drive less a permanent action in my life. I think I can drive less and carpool with people more often which will help but I do not think it would be feasible to rely on other modes of getting to places where I live. However, while at school I can definitely make the effort to drive less as it is much easier to do here. I think I can commit to using less plastic bags and this is something that is relatively easy to do. In the article "Study: Where are Plastic Bags Banned Around the World," the author says that placing a tax on thee usage of plastic bags has significantly decreased the use of them in certain countries such as Portugal and Ireland. The article also said that in the US, the only states that either ban plastic bags or put a tax on them are Hawaii, California, and DC. This was surprising to me and I thought it would be a higher number of states. The information from the article makes the harmful effects of plastic bags on pollution and on the health and safety of various kinds of animals clear. It also gives me insight into wanting to make this change permanent and to continue to practice using reusable bags. A simple way to do this is to make sure you always have one in your car so you have it easily accessible when you go to the store. My mom has done this for a few years now and it has decreased the amount of plastic bags that my family would discard of. I want to do this at school as well and not just at home and make it more of a consistent habit. 

This week became slightly more difficult as we added several more challenges onto the ones we are already working on. It was interesting to become more aware of my actions and what I was doing. I tend to be somewhat aware of turning off lights when I am not using them, but will sometimes find myself getting back to my room and seeing that I left my light on. By participating in this challenge everyday, it made me more aware of turning off electricity when I am leaving or not using it. I think it was surprising to learn about local waste sites and how they try to save landfill capacity and create renewable energy. Although it does not include Lewisburg, I was reading about the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority and they take the trash and recycling obtained from Lancaster County and do things like create renewable energy out of it. It is a really interesting process that the waste goes through and surprising how they were able to use waste for good. 

I think some of the barriers may come more from the previous week's challenges that I am still engaging in rather than these newer ones. I think it may be difficult for me to incorporate meditation into my everyday life as it is something I am not a big fan of after trying it in the past. I find it very difficult to get myself to do it as well. I have heard the beneficial effects that it can have, so I would like to engage in it more. I also think it might be hard for me to go on daily walks when it gets cold, as I mentioned in my previous journal entry. These are the times where I would much rather skip the walk due to the weather and not make an effort to go outside and deal with the cold weather for a short amount of time. 

I think there are several that I can incorporate into my everyday life. One of them is turning off lights when I am not using them. I tend to be decently good about this, but could be more aware and it is something I think I will continue to do. I also find myself having an easier time skipping straws when going to restaurants or using my own reusable one. I think this is one that I could incorporate into my everyday life as well as I have become more aware of the fact that I do not need to use a straw.  

I think these new challenges will be some of the more difficult ones that I will be doing, at least up until this point. I think walking more and driving less may be hard for me as I rely on my car often, even when I probably do not need to like driving on campus when I could walk instead. I do not think that reusing plastic bags or reusable bags will be difficult as I have done this sometimes in the past. I think the hardest part for me about this will be remembering to bring the bag when I go to the store. I do look forward to trying to be more consistent with this challenge as I have been using a lot of plastic bags lately when going to the store rather than bringing my own. 

It was slightly challenging as I have never really done any challenges such as this one with having to check in every day and be consciously aware of making time to do these challenges throughout the day. I enjoyed being able to explore the different challenges that the program offers and found ones that I thought would challenge me a little but would still be very much doable. I began with the challenges of taking a daily walk, meditation, and writing down core values. The easiest for me was probably writing down my core values, as I have done this in the past and am fairly aware of what my core values are. The challenge comes from living your life in a way that aligns more with your core values which is what I am going to attempt to do as well, rather than just writing them down. Walking is normally something I thoroughly enjoy and do often. Living in Southwest Florida makes this easy and desirable, but coming back to Lewisburg after break, I had to think about the weather differences when picking this challenge. I think it was surprising to me that I was more comfortable doing the challenges I am usually not as comfortable with such as meditation and less comfortable with challenges I am used to engaging in at times such as walking. 

One of the challenges for me, as I mentioned before, is the weather. The cold weather here makes it more difficult for me to be willing to go outside for a walk. This is also the case when I have practice outside for an hour and then feel as though I do not want to go for a walk at a different point in the day as I am usually pretty cold at practice and just want to get back inside. I also think that I may have a hard time sticking to these challenges. This has always been a challenge for me, and I struggle sometimes to commit to certain things. I have been told to meditate in the past or do mindfulness exercises. I will stick with these for a few days, but then drop off and stop doing them. I need to get myself to stick with these challenges to incorporate them into my daily life rather than quitting on them before they can make an impact or effect my everyday life. I also think time is of concern as I am typically really busy and do not necessarily want to make the time for things of this nature. I think that adjusting where I am spending my time will make it easier for me to accomplish these challenges in the future, especially as the semester continues and gets busier and busier by the week. 

I think I am willing to make some of these challenges permanent, but maybe not others. I am willing to try and implement as many of these into my life as I can, but I am unsure of how many I will consistently try and do every day. I think it is incredibly important to be mindful of these challenges and how they can help the environment, and I think reminding myself of the environmental benefits will help me to try and implement them into my life as much as possible. In the reading on conservation, we read about how it is important to do the greatest amount of good, for the greatest amount of people, for the greatest amount of time. I think consistently sticking with these challenges and implementing them into my daily life will not only benefit me, but will benefit the greater society as well.