It was difficult for me to come up with something good to do for the final intervention, because I already do some of the examples like I hardly drive my car and I’ve been a vegetarian for over 10 years and end up eating vegan a lot of the time. Also everything I was thinking of didn’t seem “big” enough and seemed a little selfish since the changes would benefit me and not so much the environment. In the end I decided to combine a few ideas. So for my final intervention, for a week I decided to walk home from school everyday, workout everyday (no matter how brief it would have to be), dance a little everyday, and not used any plastic baggies.
The walking, working out, and no baggies were all things I originally thought about when brainstorming for this final intervention but the dancing everyday for a week came about on its own. One morning I had a little extra time to get ready so I played some music and danced around. It gave me energy and I felt happier after so I thought that would be a perfect thing to add to my daily routine in order to better my life through this intervention.
Walking home from school everyday was nice. I always enjoy walking home for the exercise and fresh air, but it definitely was harder to make sure that I did it everyday. I have tried to walk home instead of taking the bus as much as possible before but sometimes I’d be too tired or it’d feel too cold. I was glad that I was able to stick to walking. I think the walking benefited myself and the environment because I was not taking part in the emissions produced by my car or the bus.
Working out everyday is something that I’ve wanted to do again for awhile but I haven’t been able to find the time to put myself first. For the most part, my workouts for the week were in my house but I still definitely enjoyed them. It felt good to get a little extra movement going to break up doing all the school work I’ve had lately. Also it was fun to use the new exercise bands I got. I’m glad I had to make some time for myself to get moving more.
Not using plastic baggies for a week wan’t very hard to actually do but it did take additional time and thought. Whenever I take snacks to campus for the day I just toss them in plastic baggies without much thought. Instead, I had to find the right tupperware to put everything in, including a sandwich which a little more difficult with the options I had to choose from. It wasn’t fun having my backpacked stuffed more than usually with the containers but in the end I think it was worth it to make that change. It isn’t too much to ask in order to reduce the amount of plastic waste I create.
Overall, I think the minor changes I came up with resulted in a positive intervention outcome. I enjoyed doing all of them and felt like I was living a better and happier life as well as doing a little bit to help improve the environment as well. Although I don’t think I’ll have much time these next few weeks to continue working out everyday and I don’t really want to walk half an hour in the rain, I will try to continue my intervention activities as much as possible, especially not using plastic baggies. I also want to keep up the random dancing because it never hurts to have a little extra burst of happiness in my life.
