As I officially begin my Earth Month Challenge, specifically in the area of food and water, challenges will be faced as I attempt to reduce my environmental impact. Mainly, my challenges will revolve around reducing my water usage and reducing my food waste.

For my first week, the challenges I will be tackling is limiting my showers to five minutes. This one will be particularly difficult because I love taking long hot showers to relax. However, the amount of wasted water exceeds my level of relaxation. For the second week, I will resist the urge to go back for seconds in any of the dining traditions. This is because when I do go back for seconds, I tend to fill up my plate and get too full before I finish all of the food, thus leading me to throw away uneaten portions. As an alternative, I will take one small snack out of the cafeteria with me such as a piece of fruit or dessert. For the third week, I will stop any and all plastic water bottle usage simply because of the fact that it would be far more efficient for my to always use my reusable water bottle. And for the last week, I will not be any food with an early expiration date. It takes me a while to eat the food I buy as is, so most likely the food will expire and I will throw it away. So instead I will only buy food that does not expire for at least a month.

For the remainder of my experiences in the Columbus To-Do list, I and a couple other of my roommates continued our journey throughout the city to find the remaining coffee and tea shops. Of the list of shops that were had the choice of visiting, we chose Impero, Fox in the Snow Cafe, Cup O’ Joe, and Zen Cha Tea Salon. We chose these four to finish our To-Do list because they were all in the same vicinity of the city. By keeping all of the coffee and tea shops within a close proximity, we didn’t have to worry about waiting for the city bus or paying for transportation like an Uber.

The first spot on our list was Impero. By taking the number 2 COTA straight down High Street, we were able to easily arrive at the shop and purchased a cup of coffee. Like Mission Coffee, the first we visited back in March, Impero had a hipster atmosphere with an industrial interior decoration, which is a design and feel that I personally enjoy in coffee shops. We decided to sample a coffee and purchased one cup before leaving. I would recommend this spot because there was some interesting artwork to look at while you sat and drank. The coffee was also tasty.

The next stop on our list was the Zen Cha Tea Salon. This was a short walk back the direction we came on High Street. Located on the other side of the street, the Zen Cha Tea Salon had an amazing Asian decor and very good tea. This spot was different than any of the other spots we visited because we had to wait to be seated in order to purchase our drinks. It was a short wait, and we were able to enjoy our tea and head on to the next coffee shop. I would highly recommend this spot to anyone who enjoys tea.

After a short walk through some suburbs outside of High Street, we arrived at the Fox in the Snow Cafe. It was a lone building on an empty lot and that the same industrial interior that you would find in most coffee shops. My personal opinion is that this shop was not much different than Impero or Mission. I would recommend any of the three to somebody that is looking for a good cup of coffee and good atmosphere, but once you have been to one then you have been to them all. There are no major differences that I could detect.

For our last stop, we decided to savor the warm sun and take the long walk down High Street to Cup O’ Joe. After a long walk we entered the establishment and purchased our last drinks for the day. Because the heat was on the high side for the day, I decided to refrain from the hot beverages and get a smoothie to cool down. We sat and savored our final drink before heading back to the dorms. Again, this coffee spot was good and I did not find anything wrong with it, but it was not that different from any other spot.

After visiting all of the coffee shops and one tea shop on the list, I was able to determine that it is pretty hard to mess up a coffee business. As long as the drinks are good, then there are not too many ways that someone could mess up. Aside from Zen Cha Tea Salon, because it was a tea shop, all of the coffee shops had good drinks and a fun atmosphere, but there were not too many aspects the differentiated them, not that this is a negative thing.

For my fourth and last challenge of earth month, I challenged myself to not purchase any food that had an early expiration date. The reason I chose to do this, which was already mentioned in last week’s post, was because I tend to let food sit on my dorm shelves for a long time, and they tend to expire because of this. To reduce my food waste, I would only purchase food that had an expiration date least a month away. This way, even if I forgot that the food was on my shelf or in my refrigerator, I would not have to worry of it expiring, and I could take my time eating it. By doing this, I was able to completely reduce my food waste for the week. I didn’t have to throw away any old food, and I have plenty of time to eat everything in my room before it expires. For this challenge, I’m not sure if I could carry this on for more than one week. This is because of the fact that I enjoy fresh and organic produce, especially fruits and vegetables. At for the rest of my time attending college, I could carry on this challenge. However, when it comes to how I will go about buying food when I am at home or on my own, I will buy food even if it has a close expiration date. Most likely, I will be able to eat all of the food before it expires because I will have to cook for myself and not be dependent on the cafeterias on campus. But for now, I will continue this challenge in order to prevent perfectly good food from going in the garbage. Because this was my last and final week for the earth month challenge, I was able to learn a couple things about myself. First, I learned that there are many easy things I can do in my daily living to reduce waste, such as not using plastic water bottles or limiting my shower time. I also learned if I take the time to notice, I will always be able to find something to reduce in my life in order to reduce my impact on the environment. My overall experience during earth month has been enlightening. I was able to learn some of the ways in which I could reduce my impact. The reasons I just mentioned are a few examples. To be honest, I will probably not consciously make the decision to give myself new challenges after earth month has ended to continue the effort to reduce my carbon footprint, but I will strive to keep pursuing the challenges that I had given myself for this month. But who knows, maybe I will be inspired to continue in the coming months.

For my third week challenge during earth month, completely ending all plastic water bottle usage turned out to be a very easy challenge. Because of the fact that I have multiple reusable water bottles, and drinking fountains that are at my disposal in every building on campus, I had an easy time finding and having enough water. When I was carrying my reusable water bottle between all of my classes, I had forgotten that I even had one in my backpack while walking. Even when the bottle was filled to near the brim with water, the additional weight that I had to carry between classes was negligible. Making the transition was very easy for me, and I believe that I could easily make this a permanent routine. The benefits far outweigh the costs in making the switch. I save money, I don’t have to bother throwing away the bottles, and I can have more water at once because of the larger size of the reusable water bottle. The only cost would be carrying it around in my backpack, which isn’t really even a cost. For the last week, I will not purchase any snack food that has an expiration date. I choosing this seemingly strange challenge because I allow food to sit for long periods of time in my dorm room, which leads to many things expiring. If I choose to purchase food, I will make sure that the expiration is nowhere in the near future. In this way I will be able to eliminate all food waste outside of eating in the cafeterias.

For my second week challenge during earth month, denying myself full plates of seconds in the dining halls did not go as successfully as my first week challenge. I had a tendency to give into temptation, especially on Wednesday and Friday when I had lectures until 2 PM and hadn’t eaten since 7 AM. The stomach pains that come along with starvation would cause me to go back for a second plate, of which I would normally only eat half. However, on the other days of the week, I made good progress with my challenge and was able to satisfy my hunger with one enormously stacked plate. I’m not sure if I would be able to continue this challenge past earth month through unconscious actions, like last week’s challenge, but I feel I was able to reduce my food waste by consciously considering my challenge. It will be an enormous challenge to undertake past this week, but by considering all of the food the I wouldn’t be wasting, I believe it is completely manageable. For next week’s challenge, I will be completely cutting out all plastic water bottle usage for the week. Because I own two reusable water bottles, there is no need for me to ever waste my money on a plastic water other than for convenience’s sake. However, if the only reason I am buying plastic is so that I can throw it out as soon as I’m done, then I simply need to suck up carrying an extra quarter-pound in my backpack.