Week 6: It’s about time.

This post is about time, that is.

I did a little better this week with not using one-time-use plastic, but I still haven’t had enough time off to actually work on my additional goals, so there aren’t many updates this week.

Goals that I implemented:

• Tool 1 Stop Shopping goal: no new things except food and gas/try to buy local if new
  • Update: Naught added to the fund.
• Tool 2 Grow Some Food goal: plant beans in a pot
  • Update: My bean plants actually did grow. I just needed to give them some more time and water. I’ll report back when they give me food.
• Tool 4 Buy Local goal: buy from local restaurants and no chains/fast food
  • Update: $5 in fund for frozen chai tea latte from Wawa because it’s a chain, but I got it in a paper cup and used my own straw, so no plastic.
• Tool 5 Turn Off The Lights goal: no phone until after breakfast and computer off by 9:30pm
  • Update: I had my computer on later than 9:30pm once, so $1 added to the fund.
• Tool 6 Consume Less Plastic goal: $5 fine for any disposable plastic utensils/straws/plates/cups
  • Update: Naught added to the fund.
• Tool 7 Detox Yourself goal: detox laundry detergent
  • Update: Done
• Tool 8 Make Stuff goal: make things and use what I have for gifts
  • Update: Done
• Tool 9 Clean Your Closet goal: donate things I don’t need
  • Update: Done
• Tool 10 Track Your Trash goal: turn off water in shower when not rinsing
  • Update: Naught added to the fund.

Goals that I still need to implement:

• Tool 3 Eat Local goals: look into and try to visit more Orlando and Kissimmee farmers markets and local produce, specifically through IDEAS for Us; start tracking meatless day/part-time vegetarian, in addition to already eating mostly plant-based
• Tool 6 Consume Less Plastic goal: consider a mini-goal of only buying products with recyclable packaging for a certain amount of time
• Tool 10 Track Your Trash goals: research waste collection/recycling in Orlando and Kissimmee, look into visiting a landfill, look into composting, consider doing a waste/water audit and carrying trash, research reusable feminine products, consider not using paper towels for personal bathroom trips for a certain amount of time
• Tool 11 Guzzle Less Gas goals: begin tracking gas usage and train usage, calculate my carbon footprint, ultimately donate to offset fund at the end of the four months, conduct cost-benefit analysis of trading in my RAV4 for a hybrid or electric car
• Additional goals: track time volunteering and interning and working, find and apply to interesting summer opportunities/beyond, determine motivation months based on larger-scale goals
• Nothing New Fund this week: $6; Current total: $54

I was able to drive/take the train/bike to my internship on both Wednesday and Friday, so that transportation method has now been implemented. Since I haven’t made much progress on my additional goals (yet), I’ll move on to a story about the only goal on which I sort of made some progress.

For a couple of weeks, there was no sign of life in the pot where I planted my beans. I wasn’t paying super close attention to them with how busy I always am, but it seemed like they weren’t going to make it, so I was planning to plant some other seeds that I had saved from my days of gardening in college (check out the photo in my first post and the photo of my garden on the home page of this blog). Then, once I forgot about them, they sprouted. Sorry in advance for the lame analogy, but here it is. Like my beany babies[sic], sometimes I just don’t give myself enough time to grow. Working and volunteering so much lately has me feeling like I’m falling behind, or like I’m not doing enough, even though it’s not possible for me to do any more at the moment. I’m always thinking of the Red Queen hypothesis, an evolutionary hypothesis that proposes that we have to constantly adapt and change just to be competitive and survive. In other words, we have to move as fast as we can just to stay in one place. However, my beans remind me that I’ll eventually get to my goals and ultimately end up where I’m supposed to be, even if it takes some time. I just need to be patient and persistent.

My beans aren’t the only thing that remind me of this lesson. Just as monitored beans never sprout and a watched pot never boils, observed small robots never charge. I’ve recently worked a few science festivals in which I’ve hosted activities with small robots called Ozobots, and it always takes the last couple of Ozobots five-ever to charge at the end of a long day. The point is that life is short, but only if you are moving so fast that you don’t take time to enjoy it and reflect on its meaning every once in a while. In a year or two, I’m hopefully not going to look back on my four months of nothing new and think about how long it took me to implement my goals, but instead be happy that I took the time to turn them into long-term habits that help me live a more sustainable life. Eat vegetables, get sleep, be happy, and may thee use naught new.