I never commented on it during the challenge, but I did contribute to the sharing economy by working on a shared garden and inviting someone over for dinner.  It's a person I sometimes struggle to enjoy being around, but I try to keep motivated about the benefits of sharing tools and garden space and even tasks like weeding and cooking.

The part that  was surprisingly the most difficult was practicing mindfulness. Modern life is built on a foundation of distraction. We ignore that which is going on within ourselves by over-analyzing world events, trying to keep up in school, and managing a social life both with friends and as a sort of self-advertisement and aggrandizement on social media. All of these come together to create a web of consistently nagging thoughts which are difficult to escape. It often took me 15 minutes just to get to the point where I could think clearly and embrace the world mindfully, but once that point was reached, it became clear how unimportant much of life's distractions are. This connected state is what I believe to be the core of humanity. Our sentience has been reduced to rare moments of escape. This project has helped me to take a step back and analyze what is important in my life and what I should prioritize, and more than anything else, I think internal conversation is what matters most to me. I will continue to work towards a better understanding of myself and my place within the world.

The big thing that I focused on over these two weeks was avoiding the use of hand dryers and hair dryers. Because I live in the dorms I only have access to a hand dryer in the bathroom which drains energy. These past two weeks I have focused on drying my hair better after my shower with a towel and drying my hands on a towel when I get back to my room. Not only am I cutting out the energy consumption from the electric dryers, but I'm also eliminating unnecessary waste that comes from paper towels.

Brushing my teeth without running the water was a very simple way that I could contribute to saving water. It really made me realize how often I pointlessly leave the water running, not only when brushing my teeth, but also doing other things like washing my hands or washing my face. The 5 minute showers were a little harder. To start my challenge I set a timer to see what the length of my average shower was so that I could strategize how I can shorten then. My initial shower was 10 minutes and 34 seconds long. I knew they were longer than 5 minutes but I never realized how long they actually were. My issue came with me standing in the shower just trying to be warm. Following my initial timed shower I then set a timer for the next shower that would go off after 5 minutes. It took me two more showers but I was able to get my shower down to 5 minutes after 4 days. In addition, I also tried to switch to showering every other day on the days when I wasn't working out or getting significantly "dirty". Lastly, I have been feeling guilty about how many disposable water bottles I go through in a given week. I went to Wal-mart and bought a Brita pitcher to completely erase my use of plastic water bottles and switched to a reusable bottle. I'd say my eco-challenge was a pretty big success and I'm looking forward to implementing these challenges in my everyday life.

My challenge was to take 5 minute showers. This was an interesting challenge since I realized many things I was doing that were only wasting time and wasting water at the same time. Before, I would play my music and just have lengthy thoughts in my head about everything in the shower because I felt really relaxed and didn't want to get out. Once I started to do this challenge, I saw those behaviors and fixed them by focusing on what I was doing and getting out of the shower as soon as possible to not waste more water than I needed. This challenge has opened my mind and I'm really glad I did it.

I usually only find myself taking walks to and from classes or work, but this challenge has been forcing me to adopt nature as a part of my (mostly) daily routine. Taking walks in lower Hixon or the marsh on weekends has noticeably reduced my stress levels during the week. This challenge also gave me an excuse to take neighborhood walks when I need a break from studying, which has given me a deeper connection to the neighborhood; it feels more like a home. I decided to leave my headphones and phone at home when I take most of these walks. That action gifted me with a greater appreciation and awareness of the sounds that we hear in natural areas. Hearing birds chirp or wind drive through the tree tops is now more cathartic than it was before beginning this challenge. 

This challenge was definitely difficult to complete and it especially made me realize just how much meat I normally consumed as I never realized how much meat I was really consuming in my diet because I've never really thought about it. At the beginning of the challenge I definitely had troubles keeping up with the meatless meals simply because I would forget about it, but eventually I was able to get into the habit of not eating meat. I found it very interesting because not only did I learn about the impacts I could make by eating less meat, but it forced me to get a little more creative with may meals so that I was still eating enough protein and still enjoying my meals. As much as I do enjoy eating meat, it was fun to try new things and I think that I will continue to try and cut down the amount of meat I eat on a daily basis. 

I really liked having a way to show my improvements on eco-friendly tasks. I had a way of making sure I accomplished at least a couple of my tasks everyday. I definitely improved too! Before this, I didn't really realized how often lights are left on in my room and now I always make sure I shut everything off when I leave. I always use my hydroflask now instead of grabbing a water bottle and I shut off the sink as often as I can when I'm brushing my teeth or washing my face. Overall, I saw improvements and loved seeing myself make them. 

There were some difficulties I had in completing my challenges, as there were moments I had forgotten about them.  When I had the challenges in my mind, they were not too difficult to complete, and I am interested to see the savings with respect to utility bills as well.  It's kind of fun challenging myself, and saving money  at the same time.  I intend to implement some similar tasks on my own for fun, and environmental responsibility. My best piece of advice is to have at least a daily reminder in the morning about these challenges to prevent forgetting about them!

Trying to keep up with this everyday wasn't the easiest task in the world but it definitely made me get creative in producing less waste when I'm eating. I used a lot less napkins, and I made sure to use a lot less dishes while eating in the dining hall.