Ivan Ojeda Martinez

This week, I decided to go walk down the trail that's close to where I live and just see where it takes me. This is westside regional trail that starts close to my apartments around the Farmington area. I've gone on this trail before, but I haven't ventured far along it. Usually, I just do a lap until I leave the residential area and then return home, but it is quite long and goes pretty far. This time, I made it all the way to the peak of a hill that leads to SW Davis road, a checkpoint but no the end of the trail. It was fun and refreshing to go out and venture far away from home. I think trails like this are cool because they enable people to walk long distances in nature without worrying about getting lost. For me in particular, I am so invested in my day to day life, confined to the same locations every day to the point where I forget that there's more out there, and I have the free will to walk and venture out there if I feel like it. When I have more time, I plan on committing to exploring further along this trail.

This week, I struggled to find something to challenge myself with. For the past three years, I have been working part time while in school and saving money without any material goals. The only thing I spend money on is snacks and meals as well as personal hygiene items. The only big purchase I've done was pay $6,000 for braces, and ever since, I have been saving money without any direction. I always feel like I never truly want anything, and whenever I want a new game, or some new clothes, the interest is short-lived and I end up not buying anything. If anything, I believe I should be buying things more often. My life feels somewhat bland at the moment because of this. In a conversation I had with my peers during a breakout room (I forgot exactly who), someone shared that she had recently bough a secondhand wooden bed frame with cool floral patterns, and it made her happy. Items like this are long-lasting, and are bought to improve someone's quality of life. This chat got me thinking and inspired me to find something I like or need that is long-lasting. I decided to buy a new chair for my desk. Ever since I got a desk, I have been using an old plastic outdoor chair; I don't even know when we got it. It's one of those items that we've kind of always had laying around. It was time to get a proper chair. Overall, I am really happy with my purchase. It has greatly improved my posture and neck pain that I have when I'm slouched over my computer. Even though I did the opposite of what the challenge indicated, I believe sustainability is about balance. It didn't make sense for me to cut spending on food for this challenge.

This week's challenge was the easiest for me. I already use public transport extensively as it is currently my only option for transportation. I use the max and busses to get to campus, and to come back home, and also to get to work. Ironically, on Friday this week my family bought a new car, so that means that I will be driving more often than I ever have. For this reason, I will try to continue using public transport as much as I can as long as it is convenient enough. To get to school, I will continue to use public transport because I am not an experienced driver and will have to spend more time driving before I go to Portland. Outside of that, I will probably start driving to work. When I first started, I had to commute back home after a shift at work, and it is honestly exhausting. Currently, my brother is nice enough to pick me up, but I think it's time I have some more independence and also be the one to pick him up every one in a while to return the favor.

For this week's challenge, I decided to go running with my coworkers. When working in a pharmacy, you become well acquainted with your team members due to the enclosed space and consistent schedule in which you see them. I started working early October last year, and I was quickly included in their group chats and was invited to many events/hangouts like their Christmas outings they do every winter; last December, they did escape rooms and go karts. I did not go to either of those events because I had other plans, and I am overall not the most sociable. For a change, I decided to tag along to one of the outdoor jogs they often do. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to challenge myself to do something I normally wouldn't and also fulfill this week's goal. We went to Tualatin hills nature park Friday morning, and it was a lot of fun. I felt refreshed and in a better mood. In the past week, I had been struggling with brain fog, and was overall not as consistent as I used to be with my studies and during work. After this experience, I felt my performance increased and I was able to approach my usual tasks with more confidence and less stress. I had forgotten how well it feels to go outside and exercise, and how valuable it is to implement these activities in your life.

For this week, I decided to try and lessen my water consumption. The main way in which I use water every day is by showering. Already, I have stopped using my phone while in the shower; I no longer listen to music in the shower like I used to. However, I still spend a lot of time showering. I oftentimes get distracted or space out while I let the water run, and that is even before I enter the shower. While inside, I have a decently extensive routine. I don't always use conditioner because I feel like it takes too long, but sometimes I do. Some days I also use a body scrub as well as a clarifying shampoo on top of my regular shampoo to clear out the buildup of product that I used throughout the week, and this causes me to take too long inside the shower. I first decided to time myself. To lessen the bias, I did this by noting the time I went in the shower, and then checking the time I exited the shower. I spent 16 minutes inside the shower, which was really alarming. The next day, I tried lessening my shower time by remaining on task and making the conscious effort to think only about scrubbing, soaping, and rinsing. This reduced my shower time, lasting only 9 minutes. A better idea would be to turn the water off when I am soaping and scrubbing, and only turning it on for rinsing and the initial soak, but I have been excusing myself due to the cold weather. Nonetheless, I am proud of that improvement.

For this week's challenge, I tried to reduce the amount of food waste that I produced. In the past weeks, I haven't been the one doing groceries like it usually has been in the past, so I haven't had the chance to implement many direct changes in spending. Instead, I focused in clearing out what I already had. I had purchased a head of cauliflower some time ago, and I had only used half of it. It had been sitting in the fridge for a week, and I decided to finish it by oven roasting it with some salt and pepper. I finished it all by myself alongside the food my mom had cooked for that day. I also used a lot of the spinach I had in the fridge that was sitting there for a while. I decided to make a smoothie with it alongside frozen strawberries and bananas, protein powder, and half milk half water base. I also ate some sandwiches with it; I like spinach better than lettuce on my sandwiches because I prefer a more leafy texture. I managed to finish both of these before the week. I decided to start eating more fruit as a snack. I enjoy eating chips a lot, and I buy them often. My brother and I go to 7-eleven a lot to buy snacks throughout the week. This time, I didn't buy any, and I have been snacking on oranges and grapes, which we buy every week anyway. This is a good way to eat what I have at home instead of continuously buying additional food that I don't need.

Electricity is difficult for me to save because I use my electronics very often. A big part of it is school. I type out all of my notes instead of writing in notebooks. I also heavily rely on my phone to get places because I have a terrible sense of direction; I still get lost on campus to this day despite being a senior, and I use my GPS to get to certain buildings. My phone requires constant charging as a result of this. Additionally, in my room, I have two gaming consoles that I don't use often, yet are plugged to an outlet regardless. For this week, the most obvious way to save energy was to unplug both consoles, and only plug them when I am using them. I have also been more mindful of my heater use. With this cold weather, the heater in my room is often on. I have been reducing the amount of time I spend using it, which was realistically doable since I often get distracted and leave it on for more than I need. I also wear coats inside my room when it gets cold, which was a very straightforward solution. I also have been using a scented candle to warm up my room. It might be a placebo, but I feel my rooms becomes warmer. My room isn't too large, which is why I think it works, or maybe the lighting the candle creates adds a warm atmosphere, but either way I feel it makes a difference.

For this week's challenge, I refilled our bathroom's soap dispenser that ran out. We've been using the same plastic soap dispenser for a year now, refilling it with dish soap. This has greatly reduced the amount of waste we produce each time we run out of soap. The hand soap containers for bathroom use are small, and require constant replacement. By using dish soap to wash our hands, we greatly reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce. When I used to work at Target, I saw a lot of "refillable" soap dispensers that were actually just regular soap dispensers that had larger stock container versions; however, to me it never made sense to buy more plastic to refill another plastic soap dispenser. I don't buy from Target in general, but I thought the overall idea was pretty smart and simple to do. Ultimately, although I still buy dish soap for the kitchen that comes in plastic containers, I am still omitting an entire additional source of plastic. A way to improve this idea is to start using soap dispensaries. Near me, there is a store called Mama and Hapa's zero waste shop. I am still not sure how affordable their soap is, and it's currently not realistic for me to go to an entire different store just for soap, but it would definitely be a more sustainable option.