LC Exercise #4 Part 1: All The Good I Might Do Before I Die

PROBLEMS	ACTIONS
Global Poverty	I really want to work for a non-profit, especially focusing on education* (for both boys AND girls!) all over the world
Unhappiness	I can do small everyday things to make the people around me happier; a smile, a wave, a compliment, a hug, are all tiny things that can have a large impact
Orphans	Really random, but I’ve always wanted to adopt kids in the future!!
Environmental Issues	Make small changes to my habits (to lower my ecological footprint) to eventually actually make a difference
*All the Evil in the World (War/Violence/Crime/Genocide/Terrorism, etc.)	As part of promoting education in third world countries, I think the Love Course should be available to every student around the world. Only half way through the course, and I already believe it has made me a better person- so think if everyone became a better person! Compassion CAN be taught, or it least people can become more aware of it, so it’s literally the answer to all our problems! You don’t fight terrorism with war; you fight it with education, and love!

(That’s all I can think of for now, but there is so much more!)

The change I really wanted to focus on was being more environmentally friendly, mostly because it was one of the only ones that was really possible for me to do at this time in my life, and also I really do care about the environment, but rarely do much to help. The others, although I feel like I’m putting some of them off, I know will eventually get done if I choose to still do them when I get to that point, and as for making people happier with little things, I am also trying to make that more habitual. Already I try to be environmentally friendly, but obviously there is so, so, so much more I could be doing. So I tried to do all the things I already knew I should be doing, and tried to make them into a normal part of my daily routine. Not only do I only use reusable water bottles, but I convinced my mom to no longer even buy disposable plastic water bottles, so that the rest of my family no longer has the choice. Also, a lot of girls on my soccer team always leave their plastic bottles on the fields, so someone always has to take an armful on them to the trash at the end of every practice or game- but now I take them home with me in my bag in order to recycle them (why people can’t just pick up after themselves is beyond me). I also added a recycling bin to my room for when I'm too lazy to take something downstairs to recycle it. We also purchased more reusable bags for grocery shopping and got nightlights for around the house so we don’t have to leave hallway lights on. Although I already tried to do this before, I am trying to really make it a habit to turn off the lights if I’m not in a room, turn of my computer at night and when I’m not home, turn off the faucet while brushing my teeth, and take shorter showers (although, this last one is definitely a struggle). Also, when I go to my SAT class in Boston every weekend, my friends and I now take the subway instead of driving (there’s not really any public transportation options in Sharon), and I am trying to walk home more or it least carpool. These small actions may not make a huge impact, but doing them everyday will eventually add up, especially when I get the rest of my family involved too. It feels nice to finally do something; before I just talked about how awful humans are to nature, but now I’m actually doing something about it instead of being hypocritical. I like actually "be[ing] the change [I] wish to see in the world" -Gandhi. You don’t need to be able to afford a hybrid and solar panels to start being environmentally friendly, the tiny things help too!