This past semester has been quite the adventure for me, and I think the rest of the class. When I began, I admit I think I got a little ahead of myself. I tend to decide I’m going to do a project and run with it, not thinking about everything else that needs to get done (oops). After spending so much time with children the past few years, my heart strings were pulled significantly as we started talking about the next generation, and what we owe them. This sent me on my whirlwind of contacting others to find a community of people who were interested in the same things I was- after all, who wouldn’t be? This was my reality check number 1: people may acknowledge the earth’s importance, but that doesn’t mean changing the circumstances we’re in is their number 1 priority. I was far more disappointed than I cared to admit, but looking back I think it helped me set my plan in more of a wayfaring state- how was I going to show early childhood educators that teaching about the environment and spending time outside was crucial in the wellbeing of our children, especially when I already knew that the early childhood sector was already facing issues with simply uninterested teachers.
Meeting with the assistant dean of the early childhood program here at KSU both gave me hope and despair- she agreed with both of my sentiments, but gave me no clear solutions for how to improve the passion portion in order to even reach my own goal of integrating the environment. It began to seem like I was biting off more than I could chew- trying to create social change while also trying to maintain my grades in all of my other classes, work 3 jobs, and maintain a healthy relationship where you actually see your significant other more than once a week was proving to be quite difficult. However, throughout this, I found myself keeping a more critical eye to the world around me. I stopped using plastic bags at stores (as much as I could), and would even offer friends my purse when they were about to get one for something small. I stopped using water bottles entirely besides my reusable Starbucks cup, and helped my roommate find a larger water filter so she could reduce her plastic usage as well. I reminded myself that walking to and from my boyfriend’s place was not that much more time consuming, and I got to spend more time outside. I’m not saying that this was actually going to stop pollution, climate change, or littering, but it definitely reminded me of the luxury that we have to be outdoors, and how much it would suck if it all went away. If I could show this to other people, maybe we could make a difference.
That being said, I didn’t make near as much progress and I had hoped to. I’m definitely one who prefers tangible results, but that means I oftentimes discredit the immense shifts that have taken place within me. I now think about the environment everywhere I go, and isn’t that part of what living in the Anthropocene is? The same way we take care of our loved ones, by thinking about them when making big decisions, shouldn’t we simply be doing the same for our planet? Our home? In a way, this form of understanding is much bigger than any education plan I could have created had I followed my initial plan.
I still want to eventually encourage local early childhood centers to recycle, and to teach their children what it means to recycle and take care of mother earth. However, I’m not going to deem this semester as a complete failure, because it was a step of growth for me and after all, I am a unit of change.
Learning to Live in the Anthropocene 