Max Bunzel

My Eco challenge has been going well. I have continued my wellness actions and have added the other one time water and waste conservation challenges in the process. I would say that as time has passed on, it has become more part of my schedule and I have developed habits that have made it easier to complete my tasks everyday. I have also logged some of my time in a journal to make sure that I am completing all of my tasks everyday. In terms of becoming part off my daily routine, I have been taking walks in the morning before my classes to clear my mind for the day as the first thing I do everyday. I have noticed that my mood has been worse on the days that I move this walk to later in the day and is something I am happy to do every morning as it has become part of my everyday habits. I have done my reading task later at night as a way to destress from the day and has really been something I look forward to during the day. Like the walk task, I have noticed that I do not sleep as well when I don't read before bed and is something that I have loved working into my daily routine. For my waste tasks, I have pushed off doing my laundry for the longest in my life. This has been an eye opening experience because I have never pushed myself to really wear every item in my closet before washing my clothes. I usually just cycle through my favorite pieces of clothing and leave a lot of clothing in my closet just sitting there not being used. I think this habit is a bad one and is something I never really noticed until I started this challenge and added this to my daily habits. I have also started to walk to class more often which is something that has been great for my monthly budget as I have not had to spend money on gas as my use for my car has gone way down since the challenge started.

In this part of the Eco challenge, I have added on the two tasks of not using plastic straws as well as only using cold water when I wash my clothes. Although these two things have not had tremendous impacts on my life, they have had me think more about my decisions when decided big impactful stuffs on the environment. The one challenge with the washer machine has really morphed into just my overall use of the washer machine. I have not only focused using golf water for my clothes, but I have also tried to double the time I take to use my washer machine. I would say that I have an abidance of clothes at school, but really only run through a small fraction of the clothes I have and continually wash the same clothes on a pretty consistent basis. I am therefore not totally filling up my washer machine and also running the machine way more often than I should be. As part of the eco challenge of doubling the time to wash my clothes, I have become more aware of the wastefulness I have taken part in by not expanding my wardrobe and wearing all the clothes I have at school before I run the washer. I did not intend on making this part of the challenge but it has been cool to see how this challenge has morphed into something that is just as wasteful of a habit as the one that I originally chose. I have continued my other challenges on a pretty constant basis, that was going on daily walks and replacing 20 minutes of screen time with reading fiction, and I have been very happy with the peacefulness that it has brought me. 

My Eco-Challenge has consisted of going on a daily walk and spending 20 minutes per day replacing screen time with personal reading beyond school. I think that both challenges have really helped me understand some of the stuff being taught in class about reconnecting with nature as well as some of the activists we have learned about that have taken this challenge on in a more radical way. I have really connected to the article What Happens When We Reconnect to Nature. After reading this article, I now understand the importance connecting with nature has on your health, and the need to get outside in order to become motivated to protect it. I think that without this challenge, it would be really easy to get into a cycle of staying in doors for the majority of my day as it is freezing most days around this time of the year in central PA. This challenge has really forced me to re think the ways that I get exercise and try to accomplish two things at once by going on walks and re connecting with nature. The same goes for my other challenge of replacing screen time with reading. Reading was a hobby that I picked up during quarantine, but is something I rarely do when I am in Lewisburg, taking classes. I don't take time to read before bed because I am often too busy to make time for it. This challenge has really forced me to find time throughout the day to read for pleasure and is something I would have never accomplished without the motivation this challenge has given me.