Blog #1

To me, sustainability means to use and replace. To not overuse our natural resources that we could very well run out of. My expectations for this course were pretty mediocre, I wasn't thrilled to have to take it, but then again, I didn't have much of an issue with it. I've grown up in Arcadia, Florida and spent my childhood roaming around 230 acres on four-wheelers or horses. My parents worked very hard to preserve the old huge oaks when clearing to build our house. A few trails have been cleared to have a route from the house to the campsite on the creek, but the majority of the land has been left in its raw form. Growing up out here has given me an appreciation for nature and the beauty of letting things be. Almost every morning theres about three or four deer in the backyard by the pond and it's cool that we can walk outside and they don't even bother to run off. Being a psychology major, I was very interested in the 'Nature Deficit Disorder' from the colloquium reader. Being that I studied Abnormal Psychology in summer A and learned about ADHD it was fascinating to me that it could possibly be linked to having lack of exposure to nature. I think it makes complete sense. I have a six year old niece and five year old nephew that live with me and although he loves to be outside helping "papaw" work, she can sit in front of the television for hours if we let her. She doesn't get to watch much television at all but you can see a difference in their behaviors. She is much more fidgety and whines when she doesn't get her way. When she watches a movie she is glued to the screen like a zombie and you can't get her to take her eyes off of it. There are other ways psychology plays into the environment. Stress for example, is one of the leading causes of health issues. And there are many reasons to stress about what is going on with our planet. All the talk about global warming, running out of water, prices of food sky-rocketing, natural disasters occurring more frequently and people saying it's the end of time. If you dwell on any of these issues, you're bound to drive yourself a little crazy. Looking at myself, I'd like to think I'm pretty sustainable but I drive a camaro with a v8 engine, and live an hour and a half away. So I guess burning fossil fuels isn't too sustainable, but it's something I don't really have a choice in doing. I don't recycle, and I'm guilty of shooting many armadillos. So I guess I could improve on a few things. Although I recently shot a hog that was about 350-400 pounds and gave it to someone to eat. So I'm not doing too bad!