Sustainability.
One word that encompasses so much in our everyday lives that it can often feel overwhelming.
I graduated from college with a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science with a concentration in Sustainability. Honestly, when I very first started taking my classes there was a cloud of gloom that hung over me for a few weeks. It was amazing and terrifying to learn how interconnected everything is.
But there were soon negative connotations with my field when I told people what I was going to school for. I was yelled at, cursed at, told my father was rolling over in his grave (many generations of my family were coal miners), that he would have been extremely ashamed of me, and that I needed to move from my hometown.
Before I could even speak to let them know my perspective on it they had cast their own opinions on me and walked away. If it wasn't for me being raised by a strong woman I would have crumbled at the first comment. But, she let me cry on her shoulder for a few minutes before helping me grow my thick skin at those comments.
Things have changed for me as I have grown as a student and person over the last year or so.
In the beginning everything was huge. Every issue, piece of legislature, and step forward seemed to be the biggest yet. But it never seemed like it was enough. The cloud just kept getting bigger.
About a year ago, once I had graduated, I started reading what wasn't in my textbooks. I started having conversations with the people that were the statistics in the books that I did research on for my papers.
I had said for a long time that living where I do was an anchor, something that was holding me back. Living in one of the top coal producing states in the country made me feel as if I was never going to get started with what I wanted to.
But now I couldn't ask for a better place to be. Every single day I get to see and engage with the "statistics" that I read about in my books. Those statistics are people. Those people have feelings, struggles, and triumphs. They have families, house payments, car payments, food to pay for, medical bills and so on. I get to witness every single day the impact of our current energy plans have on the people that work for that energy.
Honestly, I have had the most constructive conversations with the people I least expected to have one with. In the times of such negativity it is a refreshing change of pace to find someone that is just as passionate as you are, even if their views are the opposite of yours. I have learned that as long as you keep an open mind you will learn something from everyone.
As soon as I started learning the above the cloud started getting smaller and smaller. I learned that there is so much opposition out there that even the smallest positive is huge. All in all, it's all of those small positives that make the world a better place to be. One doesn't have to live in the woods away from people, having no communication with the outside world, and eat things off of the forest floor to be more sustainable.
Take a few minutes, learn a few things, and just do your best. Use one less straw per day, turn your lights off when you aren't home, buy a reusable water bottle, anything you can think of! (You may even save some money along the way.) You don't have to do it all at once and you certainly don't have to change your entire lifestyle overnight.
Do what you can do when you can do it. Imagine if we all lived by that, what a wonderful world it would be!
Have a wonderful evening on this planet of ours,
Sarah