I haven’t updated in a while, but here’s another green statement.
I recently did my extra credit for my environmental science class and as cheesy as it turned out to be, I was honest. I added just tad bit more of corny.
How has ES10 changed your thinking about the environment?
Will you change your lifestyle at all?
Has ES10 affected your choice of major or career?
If your perspective on any of these has changed, please explain how.
Although I have already planned to be an environmental science major, I didn’t realize how little I knew about environmental issues. Sure, I was advocating green practice and sustainability, but did I really know what the problems with the world really were? ES 10 really helped open my eyes to the specific issues we face as a globe today, as well as how vital solutions are to our future as a species. I figured we were in trouble, but I never thought it was as bad as what I have learned. I never thought we had dug ourselves a crater of a hole. Taking this introductory class cemented my decision in choosing my major and life path. With all of these problems plaguing out environment today, I am even more passionate in searching for solutions to climate change and global warming. I lived sustainably before, but now I feel as if there can never be enough to be done. I could ride my bike and give up my car, I could use the stairs to get up to my dorm, I could turn off the lights to every bathroom I leave, I could make more of a difference. There is so much more to this science that I can learn, that I need to learn. I chose this major with the hopes of saving trees and animals, but now I want to learn how to save the world. It’s not just about tree-sitting and protesting anymore, it’s about the planet.
That’s not the only point of this post though. I know I have probably blogged about this before, but I feel like the plans I make for myself chain me to my decisions. I love the environment, yes. I love trees more than people, yes. But do I really still want to sign myself off to this major? It will most likely determine my jobs int he future and what I will be doing for the rest of my life. I should have known. The Environmental Protection Agency probably wouldn’t pay much, graduate school would be ridiculously expensive, and I still want to live fabulously wealthy.
But I don’t think I want to do anything that just makes money. That has a little less purpose than I was aiming to do with my life. I keep going back to thinking about living the life of an artist. The life of a photographer. The life of freedom. I keep thinking about the art teachers I have had and how they always praised me for having talent despite drawing crappier than older students in the school. Can I believe their words? Than I am talented in this craft and people better than me could be people that have learned it longer?
Then what is talent if you can learn it?
What is passion if you can’t pay for it?
Why is life so fucking hard?
I wish we could just recycle everything.