Shane Wynne

Shane Wynne

I would be lying if I said this challenge wasn’t difficult for me. Not that any of the challenges that I chose specifically were overly hard or challenging in any way but tohold myself accountable and remember to do them was definitely a hardship I had to overcome. Fortunately I was abe to do everything in a semi good way and remember to do everything although it was difficult. Something i didn't see coming when I first started these challenges was the actual difference it could make in my daily routine. Not being constantly go go go is something very new for me and in this challenges especially the walking one and the one where you eat without any distractions you realize hat you take for granted and sometimes overlook in life so this was a very new eye opening thing for me. As far as making these changes permanent in my lifestyle I think there are a few difficulties with that. Number one, finding the energy necessary to constantly remember. The saying is it takes 3 weeks to break a habit, 3 weeks to build a habit, and 3 weeks to make a habit permanent, I do not know fi I would be able to do everything like my challenges for 9 weeks. While I do appreciate eating without distractions, sometimes this is the oly part of my day where I can connect with people because of my busy schedule. It is sad to say, but eating gives me the most time to text family, friends from ome, and other people throughout the day where I have nt been able to. Even the walk itself, while 10 minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, the practice of doing it everydayit adds up eventually overtime and you miss out on a lot of time I could be spent doing studying or sleeping or anything else I have to do. All that being sad, it hink I am more than wiling to make these lifestyle changes. Not only did I notice an actual difference, but I think my general mental health improved a lot when it came to acheiving these challenges I selected. I selected these challenges for the betterment of myself and so that it was personal to me. I wouldn’t have done these challenges if I didn’t think they would affect me that much. One of the more eye popping things to me was complaining about governmental policy when soemoen like Jimmy carter said he can’t do anything without us doing anything. In the washington post article he references the thermostat problem, and if everyone kept it to certain degrees, we could greatly reduce natural gas shortages, and while this is a little thing, that I would argue doesn’t really do much. I understand where he is coming from. I think the main problem this points out is Americans in congress unwillingness to work across teh aisle, I mean this speech according to the pst ignited fury in a party, and for what? Because a president asked his people to be more mindful of the way they use a resource? I am willing to make a lifestyle change.

One of the ones where I was most excited is to try to go for a daily walk. Outside of swimming, I really don’t exercise or do anything else to take my mind off of things and because of that, while swimming the majority of times takes my mind off things, because an outlet for actually more stress. With this walk, there is no time minimum and I am not competing against anyone, I am simply just trying to take my mind off of things and I think this would be great for me. I don;t necessarily have a walking route but I think I am just going to walk until I feel bored and go from there. The one I am most nervous about honesty is the less than 5 minute showers. While definitely weird to be nervous about, I can't remember the last time I took a 5 minute shower unless I was super rushed, someone was getting in after me, or I just did not have the time. I take my time in the shower just thinking but after reading what happens when you go over 5 minutes I can definitely understand why we need to not go over 5 minute showers and maybe limit our water use because we do not have an unlimited amount in any way. I think the challenge that will most reduce my ecological footprint is actually the light one. I am guilty of leaving the lights on a lot in my room, in the locker room, in classrooms, and basically everywhere I go and I definitely need to be more conscious of it. Even at my own house I am yelled at by my parents for leaving the lights on and I definitely need to do better at doing that. I think that probably is my biggest problem when it comes to hurting the environment, although small in comparative to a lot of people and companies it is still something I can do a lot better with to improve my footprint. As I alluded to in my earlier journal, I talk about how the action that really needs to take place is the governmental change in policy. Because of this I strongly believe that the one action that will make a big difference on a political/world landscape is writing to your officials one under the nature section of the challenges. This is an opportunity to reach out to your elected officials and actually give them something that you care about passionately and something that they should care about because that is your voice on a global and domestic level. Green spaces will bring awareness to problems that are often overlooked because of their lack of resources. This is the problem, more people will continue to do harm to the environment if they do not have spaces for them to appreciate how good the environment is. And this is a direct way to let politicians, and people in power know that these issues matter and can no longer be overlooked, because the people look out for it and the scientists say that it can not go on any longer.