My First Blogging Anniversary!

I just realized that I've been blogging about plastic bags for a year now. My how time flies! I really had no idea that my frustration about the consumption of plastic bags would develop into a statistics and community project.

My dreams, for the most part, came true: My students and I hosted a festival called BagFest to raise public awareness on this issue in our community, a documentary was filmed, and my students worked with a non-profit organization to help children improve their math skills.

And several unexpected behaviors occurred to me this past year: I started biking more to work, driving less, drinking water from aluminum bottles (as opposed to plastic bottles), composting my food and pet waste, and eating more local foods. (Of course, when this project first began, I had already stopped using plastic bags in favor of using cloth and other reusable bags.)

It's good to take stock of what's happened since last August. Part of this journey has been shared with others (students, community members, faculty, media, industry people, bloggers), and part of this journey has been conducted solo. Sometimes the journey was fun, other times, it was painful. Sometimes the journey was easy, other times, it was difficult. And it was certainly everything in-between. Such is life, right? ;0)

"And where do I go from here?," I hear myself asking. I've completed this first year without any clear predictions as to how my second year will continue. Despite this uncertainty, however, I'm looking forward to learning, to becoming more environmentally-conscious, to living a mindful existence both at home and at work, and to sharing my experiences with you.