Earth Day ~ 2019

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Growing up, Earth Day was one of my favorite days. I would spend the day picking up trash and unplugging almost everything in the house because that\’s what Nickelodeon told us to do and spending time outside. In the 4th grade we even had a trash pickup and went to the park across the street. While I\’ve always recycled, this year is a little different for me because I\’m so much more aware and informed and I\’ve been making changes. (Of course, it\’s important to acknowledge that I\’ve still got a long way to go to get where I want to be!) 

This past weekend I went to the beach (for a reason that I plan on sharing later), but when we went down into the sand I was impressed with how clean the beach was, granted it\’s never been a super dirty beach. But I did notice the sole straw and a straw wrapper in the sand. Just those two pieces made a difference in my attitude and they make a difference on this planet.

According to a lot of things that I\’ve read we have 12 years. 12 YEARS before it\’s too late to to actually fix things. For the longest time I convinced myself that I couldn\’t do anything major to help. I knew what I could do: I could recycle, I could thrift, I could bring reusable bags, I could drink water out of cups instead of bottles, but what difference do these trivial things make? How would that help anything? I still did them because why not. But the truth is that it does make a difference, especially since so many people do so much less. Also, what\’s the harm in it? It\’s kind of like voting – every vote makes a count and is so important. That being said, for every time you turn off you lights or use a reusable bag or say no to a straw or recycle or whatever good you\’re doing, you are making a change. Recently, I\’ve decided/realized that I am perfectly capable of making these smaller extra changes (like Meatless Monday!). It just takes baby steps.

To really drive my point home, I want to share one more analogy, so please, bear with me. I\’m currently saving up for my study abroad experience in the next couple of years. Because of that, I\’m carefully watching my spending and picking up all the pennies. When I go abroad, I\’ll probably be spending more frequently than I usually do, with a lot of it being on travel, but not be wasteful with my hard earned money. Similarly, travel also results in a lot of extra carbon emissions, a lot of extra spending, if you will. Because this, I\’ll probably being going extra hard on myself to almost make up for the carbon emissions that I\’ll be using because of that. Just in general, going to school so far away means that I travel a lot, so I feel it\’s important that I work to make up the difference in other areas. In today\’s society, it\’s impossible to be perfect as far as waste and emissions are concerned, so each of us have to the best we can, whatever that is.

We are here on this world, so let\’s explore let\’s have a blast! But let\’s not abuse Mother Nature or this beautiful Earth we live on. I hope everything above made sense – if not feel free to drop your questions below! Otherwise, I hope you all had a gorgeous Monday!

Much Love, 

Jacquelyn 

Outfit Details: 

Sweater: St. John\’s Bay // Thrifted

Jeans: American Eagle // T. J. Maxx