Earth Month Challenge is winding down to an end, but that doesn’t mean the habits have to stop. As cheesy as that sounds, what I mean is that myself, along with many other scholars, have challenged themselves this past month with sustainable practices that occur in their daily lives. I believe that scholars will decide to implement these challenges that they chose in their daily lives hopefully for years to come, even if they just choose one.
My challenge mainly focused on diet and how changing my diet would be more sustainable to the environment. Having a purpose behind the challenge allowed me to be more focused on what I was doing. I will admit, as my challenge progressed, I did slip up a little bit but by making mistakes I learned how to apply those to my daily life when dealing with diet.
The overall experience for me was very powerful. I have been wanting to go vegan for quite some time. This challenge allowed me to wean myself off of meat and animal products. When I go home for the summer I want to practice veganism, I believe it will be easier once I am able to produce my own meals and buy my own groceries, it’s possible on campus but a bit more stressful.
I learned that you can do anything sustainably, but the choice is only yours and not everyone will go to such lengths to do things the right way. Being sustainable will save you money in the long along with helping the planet. Economics aside, it is very beneficial for your health (if you do things the right way). What I mean by this is if you become a vegan and only eat Oreos and bread, that’s not very healthy. But, if you become a vegan and utilize locally grown, in season, and organic foods like fruits, vegetables and grains, your body and the earth will thank you.
I want to do some more research on diets and examine their effects on my body before I entirely commit to veganism, but like I mentioned before, it is something I am going to experiment with for some time this summer and possibly commit to as a lifestyle choice.
I definitely would try another challenge, not just during Earth Month but year round. I am always looking for ways to be more sustainable and even picked up some good habits from other ENR scholars’ challenges, like eating at sustainable restaurants.
Overall, I would say this challenge was very unique, personal, and rewarding. It was great how students got to pick what challenges they wanted to do and what difficulty they were comfortable with. I liked how my challenge built on itself every week and would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to practice sustainability in their diet or just considering veganism.