What if we reframed our college itinerary to buying what we NEED and doing so in an eco-friendly way? Buying less, buying things that will last, and buying things that are an investment not only to our youthful and aging selves but also to the planet.

The constant flare in my mind exists in the hopelessness I sometimes feel for humanity. My generation is addicted to a virtual world so deeply that even the most peaceful of places serve only a drop of fulfillment. It’s scary.

Here are a few things I’ve learned in the past few days. Take what you may from them, and interpret them how you wish. I just want to get some of my thoughts into the world :)

The days pass by like a burning page

curling at the edges

as flames destroy any ounce

of physicality except for a

single piece of ash

that is memory.

I believe in the broken. I believe in the mismatched unconventional things that the binoculars often looking at the greener grass on the other side often overlook. I believe in the seed that can grow from the most tarnished of soils and become a grand yellow tulip.

I guess I believe this way because I believe I was that seed and still am.

A piece of paper is supposed

To span

Across a length 

Of space.

But

When

Every day I watch as family, friends, and strangers fill their garbage bins full. Recycling becomes second priority and litter, a convenience to some. I see the plastic bags stuck in trees or the plastic bottles and cans lining the water’s edge. There is literally a garbage patch in the middle of the pacific ocean-spanning over 1.6 million square kilometers. 

Knowing all this and more about our pollution crisis, I could not bring myself to send away the plastics I knew would never live purposefully again, their fates sealed by the trash can. I began keeping most of all usable waste I found: cereal bags, balloons, bottle caps, empty paint tubes, wraps from my sprained ankle, plastic bags, guitar strings and tons more.