During my first year as an ENR scholar, I have noticed stark changes in my lifestyle. I am now more conscious of what I throw away, how much I throw away, and whether or not what i am about to throw away is recyclable or reusable. I try to get involved in my community as much as I can, through service and through leadership organizations. My first semester taught me a lot about how to live both more efficiently, and more conscious of the environment.

From the outset of the year, I learned to be conscious of the material things in my life. Living in a small dorm space, as well as living in a community of people who were also learning to be conscious in the same way were a large help in my efforts to live more simply. I began to identify things that I had packed up and brought down to Columbus that I really just did not need. I began removing these items on my first trip home. I began to consolidate my material goods at school into smaller containers, putting away unneeded items so I could take them home the next time.  From this, I began to intentionally alter my lifestyle around having less. I left a decent portion of my wardrobe and other things at home over winter break, to make my room less hectic. I didn’t take flyers that I did not need. I looked out for recycling cans, instead of just throwing cans and bottles away as trash. I largely stopped buying disposable containers. Instead, I just always kept a bottle of water on my person. By the end of my first semester, i had become committed to living a healthier lifestyle. Instead of playing on my computer,I would go to the RPAC and work out. I would have a big salad with each and every meal, instead of another helping of meat. I began to drink water instead of soda or sugary soft drinks.

Thus far, all these changes I have made have had an incredible impact on my health. I feel better every day, and have more energy. This translates to me doing my schoolwork more efficiently, giving me more time to focus on things I enjoy doing.

I hope, in the coming years, to maintain my commitment to healthiness, and to expand my efforts. I hope to run two or three times a week, eat a regular, healthy diet, and find new ways to live with less stuff. I’d like to continue making healthy choices, and maybe inspire others to do the same.

I first began to realize that I needed to implement some changes in my lifestyle when I moved to college. The reduced space and communal living areas made it obvious that my old habits I had fallen into while growing up weren’t the best way to live. If I could trim off some of the less important items from my life, I could focus my attention on my school work and on my involvement at OSU. ENR scholars encouraged me further to find ways to combat excess and waste, and through weekly exposure to this encouragement and daily routine of living in a dorm, I began to actually make these changes for myself.

I am now more keenly aware of my impact on the world, and the impact of the world on me. I like to think that I take in from the world all the knowledge, skills, and experience that I can. In return, I try to give to the world all of the effort I can muster. I take each day as an opportunity to learn something new about the world, and each day I try my hardest at all of my schoolwork and for every extracurricular activity that I participate in. I my best one hundred percent of the time as my way of giving back to the world. I hope, by creating the highest quality work that I can, and doing well as a Civil Engineering student, to one day build quality infrastructure that people will use every day, and to make that infrastructure strong, long-lasting, efficient, and safe.

The Scholars Earth Month Challenge was the real test of how much progress I had made over the year. My choices for the Earth Month Challenge were designed to help me identify small ways of eliminating energy use in my every day life. My choices did end up having this desired effect, as I now have largely implemented my rule about charging appliances only during the day, and I avoid the elevator whenever I can in my every day life. These choices showed me that it is in fact very easy to save energy in little ways in our every day lives. I will continue these challenges and others that I come up with over time for as long as I am able.

All in all, I really enjoyed ENR in my first year, and I am excited to see where this next year goes!