Watching my classmates from DU post pictures from airplane windows on their way back to the United States this past weekend has been bittersweet. On the one hand, I’m jealous. I’d give almost anything to not be glued to this computer cubicle in the ACG library working on final papers. But on the other hand, it’s starting to land that in less than a week, my study abroad experience will be over. Not to worry, though! I’ve got some final-but-not-final thoughts from this semester that I think are worth sharing.
The program I am here with, ISA by WorldStrides, offered us the chance to complete “micro-credentials” while studying abroad. You can work on up to two of these extra courses during your time abroad to earn badges and real-world experience to add to your resumes (and experience of being human) along with your classes. I decided to do the “Choose Earth” micro-credential while here in Athens because I was taking two sustainability courses this semester towards my minor! For our final ‘assignment’, we had to complete some sort of environmental challenge.
During the second half of our program here, I began to recycle my apartment’s bottles, cans, cardboard, and plastic containers. I know that at first, it might seem silly to prioritize recycling plastic bottles so much in the grand scheme of things, but my apartment this semester has been me…and eleven other people. I have only lived with one other person the rest of my life, whether that be in my home or my college dorm, and I was not aware of how much waste 12 people can create in a day. Twelve people can make a lot of waste in a week, especially when those people all come from different homes and do not all believe in consuming things at the same speed. Because of this, I decided to make a serious effort to get our apartment to start recycling.
As easy as this task sounds, it became incredibly clear that it was going to be difficult to complete it for two reasons: my unnecessary stake in it and my roommate’s lack of it. If you’re one of my roommates reading this, Hi! I love living with you and keep reading so you don’t hate me! I made this recycling effort so intense for myself that I felt like I was somehow failing the challenge even though I was in charge of creating the rules. There were days when I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I was digging through the garbage just to make sure we had recycled everything we could. I think this was prompted by the fact that I was also taking two environmental justice + climate change classes this semester, so I constantly felt like global warming was completely my fault as an individual and that I singlehandedly needed to stop it. (Spoiler alert: that’s not how being an environmental steward works.) My roommates also didn’t all remember to do it and some of them don’t recycle at home, so they aren’t used to it. It was a lot of give and take, but slowly we started to recycle.
The biggest thing I learned from creating this challenge was that it’s okay if things don’t go perfectly as long as they are ‘going.’ I felt like this in many other aspects of my life abroad, too. I didn’t think I was taking advantage of traveling in Europe enough while I was here, but I’m bringing home souvenirs from four countries I had never been to before this fall. I was worried my friends from DU who were abroad elsewhere had forgotten about me since we didn’t talk much this semester, and then we had an impromptu FaceTime call last week discussing our excitement to be back in Denver soon. Instead of looking at the big picture, I was getting stuck in the minute details of my life, which was obscuring all the good parts.
It’s easy to get stuck in things like this when we’re passionate about something, especially when we’re in a new country, with new people, and trying to find our footing. This is a reminder to anyone, especially as the calendar year comes to an end, that it’s more important to just do something if it’s that or nothing. Being abroad has taught me that changes won’t always happen seamlessly, but there’s no need to go digging in the trashcan to try and speed up the process.
