Tyler Rifkin

I have really been enjoying the Eco-challenge, and have been pushing myself to remember the tasks everyday. This week I picked up four new challenges including turning things off, finding a local recycling depot, car sharing, and using a reusable water bottle. I would say the most difficult for me was the reusable water bottle. I am someone who constantly finds myself losing my water bottles, or leaving them at home when I go places. I constantly then find myself buying water plastic water bottles. I honestly struggled with this all this week as well. That being said, I have definitely been a lot better and some days have not bought any plastic water bottles. I would say that this would be difficult for me to completely make the change to in life after the challenge, yet I am going to do my best to use a reusable water bottle. I found that the other challenges I took on this week were not difficult for me. I do not have a car on campus therefore I find myself constantly walking or catching a ride with one of my friends. The car share challenge allowed me to be more aware of how much I was walking/driving. I believe it allowed me to make a conscious effort to try to walk to class more. This week a couple of friends and I walked to Dunkin rather than driving. It allowed me to do something fun while also being able to explore the area and not utilize a car. Finally, turning it off is something that I thought would be more difficult yet I found very easy and is something that I feel has already become a part of my routine. I find myself always making sure to turn off not only the lights in my room but also around the house. I have also never considered how I utilize the energy in my home and how it reflects in the monthly bills we pay. Since we talked about this in class I have been more aware of things like leaving lights on or keeping my computer plugged in overnight. I think this has also helped me motivate myself to continue to turn the lights off and unplug things. Finally, the article by Laville and Taylor A million bottles a minute: word’s plastic ginge ‘as dangerous as climate change, shows some extremely important data and conversations surrounding the dangers of plastic use. The article states that annual consumption of plastic bottles is up to half a trillion in 2021. Further, that the amount of plastic produced in a year is roughly the same as the entire weight of humanity. Overall, this article as well as my experiences made me understand the importance of not using plastic when possible to avoid. 

I think it makes the most sense for me to break down my experiences with daily-time challenges I have been doing for two weeks vs one week. For two weeks now I have been walking outside for 15 minutes and meditating for 5 minutes. I believe that these two things have felt more like a part of my daily life than the tasks I was required to do. I have found myself walking to class more often and easily getting my 15 minutes a day. I have also been able to figure out a time that is good for me to meditate. I do it either right when I wake up in the morning or before I go to bed as these are times I have alone time. I have enjoyed adding these tasks to my daily life and believe I will continue to do so after this challenge ends. The new daily challenges I took on are taking 5 minute showers and making sure to turn things off when they are not necessary. I believe that these two are more so things I need to outwardly remind myself to do. I can feel much more aware of lights being on when I walk into my home or when I am leaving. It is such an easy concept and I believe not doing it comes from a place of laziness. Further, taking 5 minute showers is something I have to openly remind myself to do but is not something that is too difficult for me to achieve. I have also found it crazy how much water I could save by taking 5 minute showers, I think this has allowed me to appreciate my shower time more. Overall, I am enjoying these challenges and am excited to continue to do them over the next couple of weeks. 

In considering my experience with taking shorter showers and reading the article on Water Footprint Calculator I believe it is possible and worth it to make this something I continue to do in my life after the Eco-challenge. The article also provided other interesting ways to continue to save water such as, putting a bucket in the shower to use for household cleaning, bringing a speaker to track time, or turning the water off while brushing your teeth. Overall, I am enjoying the challenges this week and am looking forward to add more this coming week.

As all of my roommates know, as I have been constantly talking about this challenge, I am really enjoying embracing this unit of class. This week my daily challenges included walking outside for 15 minutes and meditating for 5 minutes a day, and my one-time challenge was to go for a hike. I had very different experiences with all of these activities. I feel like walking outside and the hike were things that I am really glad I pushed myself to do. I honestly did not find these challenges difficult but rather things I really enjoyed. For my family a large part of quarantine became being outside and walking a good amount everyday. I feel like coming back to school I lost this part of my daily routine as I often felt like I did not have the time to make myself go for a walk. I really enjoyed that this challenge pushed me to get outside and walk. Similarly the hike was something that I already know I enjoy doing but often do not make time to do. I look forward to continuing to push myself to walk outside and get active. I talked about this a little bit in class but I had a different experience with my daily challenge of meditating. I am someone that is constantly moving at school and finds myself constantly surrounded by people. I am someone who doesn't like being alone and that's something that I have come to learn about myself. This is why I decided to choose the daily challenge of meditation. At first I really struggled with this as it required me to be alone with my own thoughts. I found myself even dreading this 5 minutes of my day. As the week went on I allowed myself to enjoy sitting alone and taking the time to unpack the many different things I was nervous about or looking forward to on that day, this month, this semester, or even post graduation life. I believe this challenge allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and is something I am excited to continue to do throughout this challenge. 

Based on my personal experience, the Green and Keltner Article What Happens When We Reconnect to Nature, I believe for me going on daily walks and exploring nature such as going for hikes is something that I will continue to do in my day to day life. The article explains that we are drawn to nature as human instinct and it is good for our social and physical well being. Further, these positive emotions are connected with positive effects on an individual's well being, through increasing trust, cooperation, and closeness (Green Keltner 2017). I believe I experienced this when I began to walk more daily in quarantine. I say this because in a time of distress and anxiety I found being in nature on these walks as the highlight to my days, something that helped me make sense of a time of uncertainty. Continuing this habit over the past week has allowed me to find these emotions again, allowing me to get out of my head. This being said, I am thankful that I have gotten used to walking more due to quarantine and see it becoming a part of my daily life going forward.