7.31.2013// And I'm Off Again!
For the second time this summer, I have packed my bags and am ready to leave home for a bit. This time, the distance is much farther but the time period is much shorter. Tomorrow morning, I will be setting off for 11 days in San Francisco for what I expect to be a much better experience than my first summer program! This time tomorrow, I will be settled into a dorm in Berkeley! Even though I may be beyond nervous, I think it’s a good type of nervous?! I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow!

On a side note: I am completely in awe of Colin Beavan. He is the author of the novel, No Impact Man, that I was assigned to read over the summer for Environmental Science. Everything he stands for has inspired me to change the way I live my daily life around and to do a complete 180! His book is about the changes he set out to make with his family by choosing to live almost completely self-sufficiently for a year while still remaining in Manhattan. This meant producing no carbon-emissions, no cars (only walking or bicycles), producing no trash (meaning no plastic, no paper, not even toilet paper or diapers for his daughter), and among other things, choosing to eat only organically and locally grown foods. While his experiment may seem outlandish and even extreme, I do agree that some parts are too harsh, I also cannot deny the fact that his 1-year experiment was eye-opening. We have grown so accustomed to ease that choosing take-out in front of the TV instead of a home-cooked meal served over the dining table with conversation is an almost automatic response. The book is about so much more than that and goes so much deeper into the environmental issues and the individual impact we have on our planet - it’s a wonderful, easy, and humorous read and I highly recommend it!

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