Dorm Room Crafts! (Part 3)

I consider this piece to have been the real challenge in the set of three that I've done so far, but it's also the one I'm most proud of!

And the other side?

Project 3: Jewelry Shadow Box (SECRET Shadow Box!)

My Pin-spiration? (the pin leads here for reasons I don't know)

I deemed it necessary to have a cool, easy way to display and store my jewelry, and this seemed perfect. I didn't have a box, so I went a different route: I bought a deep 10 x 14 canvas at Binders, which happened to be having a sale on canvases! 

Using my trusty Martha Stewart acrylic paint referenced in the first post, I painted the outside of the frame, and I painted the canvas (really the back side of the canvas since I was working on the back side of the entire thing) white. I had gotten a tube of acrylic paint in Zinc White from Binders as well for about $4.50.

I then spent a long time trying to carefully plan the chevron pattern that I was attempting to do in tape so I could paint over the white with blue, but finally threw my hands up in the air and put down tape approximately where it looked right. What's crafting without a little risk?  ;)

So I put down masking tape where I wanted my white chevron to be, and then painted over the canvas in my blue paint. When I lifted the tape off after two or three layers of blue paint, it left the white showing through. From various pencil marks and fingerprints, the white part wasn't quite right, so I added a couple more layers of white paint to the chevron.

Then I let it dry overnight! 

Now to actually turn it into a storage unit. I got twelve brass cup hooks at Ace Hardware (two packs of six at $2 a pack). They look like this and are about 3/4 in. long:

The next part was fun. I dented a small hole where I wanted each hook and then screwed them in. I put them in on the underside of the frame that holds the canvas, as well as on the sides. I did six on top, and then three on one side (for rings) and two on the other (for bracelets). 

I was going to add little boxes on the bottom like the pinterest one had done, but I decided to let the frame be able to sit flat against the wall even if the other side were turned around. So I made a SECRET jewelry shadow box to hide my jewelry from the dorm hall kleptomaniac!

Since I did, after all, have a nice clean canvas on the other side, I went ahead and painted it so that I could turn my jewelry holder around and have a nice (deceiving!) piece of art. It came out like this:

If only I could draw a stag freehand. Good thing there's pinterest! I saved this image from pinterest (originally found here):

I copied it into a Word document and sized it to be a little less than a page tall, then printed it. Then came several minutes of very concentrated cutting!

I made little masking tape rings (to be like double-sided tape) to tape down as much of my stag stencil as I could to the front of my canvas. Pressing the edges down as I went, I painted with the same blue paint over my stencil with a couple coats. Then came the going back in and painting white paint carefully into the body (the antlers proved challenging!). 

After the stag was dry, I painted over it with a light coat of glue and added a very light coat of white glitter (I can't really tell if you can see it in the picture). It's subtle but adds nice dimension.

I haven't added hardware to actually hang up my secret jewelry holder/painting yet, but I'll need to put the picture wire at the top (as opposed to on the back or front) so I can seamlessly turn my canvas around as I wish.

Ta-da!

Dorm Room Crafts! (Part 2)

If you read yesterday's post, you know that I'm on a mission to create cute and functional pieces for my dorm room. Granted, a great amount of the inspiration is coming from Pinterest...


Project 2: Paint Sample Dry-Erase Calendar

I have a small LARGE obsession with paint samples...both how many colors there are and the fact that they are very much free (though I do admit to feeling guilty taking like seven samples with the complete knowledge that I am not buying actual paint anytime soon).


My version is above; this one I found on Pinterest (the pin connects to here, which isn't the original post, but just to give credit where it's due...)

I was already kind of halfway done with the project since I've been working on this board since last summer. I saw the great idea to just use a basic frame with glass inside as a dry erase board, and so I got a basic 12 x 12 frame so that I could put in any scrapbook paper (with material on it or not) and use it as a dry erase board. So when I saw the paint chip calendar idea, I basically just needed to make a new template for my frame using the paint samples. 

I don't have pictures of the work in progress, but you could really put in the paint chips into any size frame; you just need to make sure to cut each sample strip correctly to fit your desired dimensions. I cut each strip so that the width measured 1.5 inches long so that seven of them could fit on 12 inches. I could have used double-sided tape to put them down on a basic piece of white scrapbook paper, but I happened to use the basic Elmer's School Glue. 

All done! And of course, you can just erase your calendar and write down the next month. Or you could make an entire other template with a different set of paint samples! 

Dorm Room Crafts! (Part 1)

I've been excited for a while (let's face it, a couple years) to decorate a dorm room. New color scheme, the challenge of working with a small space...

But I didn't want to just decorate. I wanted to make as much for my dorm as I could. So what did I make? Three projects so far, and with minimal supplies. The next few coming soon...

Project 1: Bulletin Board

My roommate and I have decided on a color scheme of blues and greens, and I've already done a bunch of crafts with just one paint: Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Craft Paint. This stuff has been great so far, and a little goes a long way. 

Anyway, for the bulletin board, I guess I could have found some cork board (easily found at craft stores) and a frame, but I saw a bulletin board already made at Marshall's (I can't find a picture of it unfortunately). And I just painted the frame with the Martha Stewart paint! Bonus of acrylic paint: dries really quickly, so perfect for the impatient crafter like me. I've found that a layer dries in about 30 minutes, depending on the surface you're painting. I put three layers of paint on this frame. Two could have been sufficient but I wanted a little extra oomph.  :)

The finishing touch on that one was a bit of a splurge, and I bet there's a way to make them, but I got some fabric-covered push pins from Anthropologie for them ($15 for twenty): 

So, so, so cute. Worth every penny.

The next few projects will appear tomorrow and the next day! 

Simply Smashing

I have an interesting mix of traits--I'm both a neat freak and a pack rat. But, being a neat freak, I've learned organized and fun ways to do the collecting and keeping of keepsakes that I love.

For example, I keep my "little black book" full of inspiration for style and jewelry, which I talked about on my other blog here. I collage like this:

It's so much fun to collect, paste in, and look through later!

I also like collecting a myriad of other things, though--ticket stubs, quotes, neat pictures, invitations and cards, strange everyday findings, and more. But I haven't really had a place to put them...

How fitting that I stumbled upon this neat idea today at Michael's!

These are Smash Books, and they're a great way to collect various findings or even do a shabby-chic scrapbook! 

These books are so cool--they're spiral bound on the inside and have lots of beautiful pages inside for you to cover any way you want. They even come with things like pockets to collect other things. 

Here's a cool video that shows what you can do with Smash better than I can.

As you can see, the books come with a Smash pen, which has a nice black been on one side and a glue stick on the other, so whenever you need to paste in your latest finding, you have glue with you! There are even other fun add-ons you can buy if you want, like these removable labels.

How fun is that? I'm excited to paste in recipes, lists, paint chips, and more. Perfect for the constant collector!

Tea, Tea, and more Tea

I'm told that from a very early age, I adored tea. I never grew out of my penchant for having tea parties, and multiple birthday parties became tea parties, and tea-related gifts came to be my favorites to receive. To this day I'm still a tea lover, and as the weather has started to become cooler, I'm gearing up for another lovely tea-filled winter!


Many people say they don't "get" tea, and the appeal is kind of hard to explain. My love of it is multi-dimensional. I first and foremost love the tastes of different teas: the intricacies of different types and flavors. Tea is also my favorite means of relaxation, whether I need a cup as I'm working or as I soak in the bathtub. I also like the precision of tea making. To make tea well, the amount of tea, temperature of the water, steep time, and more need to be monitored carefully, and I like the different details and ritual that goes along with making it. Tea is also beautiful in and of itself, and I love watching leaves unfold as they steep, and the color of the infusion after it has steeped. The beauty also comes in the form of beautiful teapots and containers that hold tea! 


I'm sure that I'll add more posts about tea later, but today I want to show some of my favorite teas and accessories. I wouldn't be able to call myself a real tea lover if I didn't use loose, whole leaf tea instead of tea bags (come to think of it, I don't remember the last time I used ground up, bagged tea!). Once I discovered loose tea, I never looked back: the flavors are so much deeper and complex in loose tea, as opposed to the ground tea that now tastes like metal to me. 

Let me first post a chart from Teavana that has proven helpful in my tea making adventures. It lists the type of tea, along with the amount of leaves to use in 8 ounces of water. The last two columns show the temperature that the water should be, and then the steeping time. Many people just thrown a tea bag into hot water and leave it there as they drink it, but it really should be removed after the time listed to avoid a bitter taste. 


By the way, I love Teavana. Where I live, at least, this is the best place to find high-quality tea. I'd love to hear about tea stores you love too! Teavana can be expensive, but good teas are bound to be expensive since the best parts of the tea plant are used.

As I said above, one of the things I enjoy about tea is storing it. Tea needs to be kept in an airtight container, preferably a tin one, away from heat and light. Teavana has some beautiful tins--I have the one pictured second from the right, which I keep some green tea in, and it's fun to look at and take out in my tea-making process.

I adore my elephant teapot which I found at World Market (one of my favorite stores--need to write about that too!). It's a very stylish way to serve tea. You don't have room for a full infuser basket, so you might need a tea ball, but it's still a wonderful pot.

World Market is also a great place to find tea if you're weaning yourself off of the bad ground-up tea for a reasonable price. If you're looking for a great-tasting green tea for a very good price, try this green tea--it's not completely full leaf but it's still much better than the ground-up stuff. It's $6 for 15 tea bags, and you can use the bags more than once if you do it properly. The bags are also biodegradable, and I love tossing them in my compost bin when I finish, knowing it might become this summer's tomatoes!

I'll add more tea wisdom later! 

Personalized Coasters: Easy, Last-Minute Gift!

If you're like me and you prefer DIY gifts over meaningless store-bought items, this easy tutorial is for you. The idea actually came to me (or maybe I remembered it from something else; I'm sure I didn't invent this idea!) when I was trying to think of a gift idea for my father for Christmas. I'll explain more later...


One of my  best friends was recently accepted to Kenyon College in Ohio and is going next year! To congratulate her and help her rev up her school spirit (go Owls!), I wanted to make her a school-spirited coaster.


You can make these coasters with virtually any print-out, and the gist of the DIY is Mod-Podging a printed image onto a basic ceramic tile. I found square tiles (4.25 in x 4.25 in) for $0.82 a piece at Home Depot, so this DIY is wallet-friendly too. Then, the only other supplies you need are:
-Mod Podge (which any crafter probably already has!)
-a basic paintbrush


-access to a computer or printer
-felt and glue gun (optional)


First, select the image of what you will put on your coaster. I just used Google to find an image of the Kenyon logo, and paste into Word to size and print. 

  

Next, print your image. Plain white paper is fine, but I like to use business stationery, which is a bit thinner and easier to paint on. Check the size of your image to make sure it fits the way you want on your tile. Then, cut it out! 

 Then you can start your first layer of Mod Podge on the entire face of the tile. Make it as smooth as possible, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Just don't use huge amounts, or the paper will become too soggy.

  Now you can press on your cut-out image. Smooth it across the tile to avoid air bubbles collecting underneath it. You'll need to do this periodically, especially as you add on extra layers of Mod Podge. 

 Give extra care to painting the edges of the image neatly onto the tile. As you paint over the image, colors might bleed a bit, so don't move the brush back and forth a lot over the image on the first coat of Mod Podge. This stuff dries rather quickly, so in 10-15 minutes, you can add on another coat and the image won't bleed as much. As it dries those first few times, remember to smooth out air bubbles and lacquer the edges of the imdage. You can do as many coats as you want. I like to do four or so--since we're making a coaster, we want it to hold up to water, and that many coats will do fine.

 The bottom of the tiles, at least the ones I bought, are pretty rough in texture. Since the coasters are supposed to be protecting the surface they cover, especially wood, we'll make sure the coaster is smooth on the bottom with some felt. You can buy adhesive felt pads at the hardware store (the kind you put on drawers and things so they don't bang when they close), or you can be thrifty and use some extra felt you might have lying around! I cut out four small squares of white felt and hot-glued them near the corners of the tile. Now it can't scratch the table!

Now you're done! 

There are so many possibilities of images you could put on the tiles. As I said at the beginning, I made a set for my father for Christmas, and I used old maps from places that were meaningful to him, as well as some pages from an old dictionary (I found the page that contained the word "father" and underlined it so it's noticeable) as well as a page from Paradise Lost. Need some more ideas?

-pages from old books

-family pictures

-logos of companies or schools

-a printed out quote

-nature images, like birds and botanicals

-a large letter for the initial of the recipient

-old sheet music

-a set of holiday-themed tiles, like decorative eggs for Easter, different reindeer for Christmas, etc.

-single words in different languages

-geometric designs

-comic strips

Have fun making your coaster!

-Clandestine

Creative DIY's for the Creative Homemaker!

Paint Chip art! Create murals, like the DIYer above. I used paint chips for bookmarks and covered my planner in a gradient pattern of chips and put laminating paper on top!


Cute wrapping ideas! Try wrapping in leftover lace and other fabrics.

Cinnamon Stick candles! Especially perfect for this season. :)

The following is a supplement question from Williams College:

Imagine looking through a window at any environment that is particularly significant to you. Reflect on the scene, paying close attention to the relation between what you are seeing and why it is meaningful to you. Please limit your statement to 300 words.

This response certainly won't fit into 300 words when I free-write it. What an obscure question. I don't feel like I have that many places that are significant to me aside from my own house which I've lived in for my entire life. I really want to say that I'm looking across a landscape or scene that is truly sustainable. I guess I might say that I'm looking across a farmer's market. It is certainly a scene where I feel hopeful. I go through my days with constant concern about the environment and am bothered by every piece of trash that I throw away which will go to a landfill and by every piece of food in my kitchen, wondering how far it came to sit on my table and what impact it had on the people that had to grow it and transport it simply for my benefit. But at the farmer's market I'm so glad to see other people patronizing it, and I love helping the local farmers in any way I can. I find it quite comforting to see people going from booth to booth talking to each other, discussing the crops with the farmers, and coming home with fresh produce, bread, and meat. Going to the supermarket is surprisingly impersonal compared to the hustle and bustle of the farmer's market where people seem happy to be there and talk to their neighbors. The market makes me feel closer to nature--when we go to the supermarket, most fruits are available year round, but very few crops actually grow year-round. At the market I know that I realize (and I hope that others do too) that we have to wait until summer for most of our vegetables and that lettuce grows in the cooler seasons. Everything tastes cleaner when I buy it from the market-- I don't worry as much about harmful pesticides, all the food is fresher since it's come from a shorter distance, and it's grown in more natural conditions. In all of my work in environmentalism, I'm often bombarded with all of the problems of ecological problems, but it isn't very often that I get to see solutions to these problems. The farmer's market lets me lay eyes on solutions that humans can come up with to fix our problems. That was a little more than 300 words. :)

How has college admissions made you rethink yourself?

The answer to this question will surely change over the next year as I deal with denials and acceptances and everything in between while applying to college, but I should probably write on this question now too:

Wake Forest is rethinking admissions. How has college admissions made you rethink yourself?

What an important question to answer. All schools should be rethinking admissions--this process has gotten entirely out of control and I honestly predict that one of these years it will blow up in our faces. The process is too competitive, too much about numbers, too politicized. The process has only made me feel worse about myself, even though in general I'm a very confident person, and made me cynical, unfortunately.

I suppose the thing that has most disappointed me (but also made me understand myself better) about the process is the resume-building. It feels like the only reason so many teens are involved in clubs, sports, and community service is for the purpose of saying, "look, College, I did this and it's impressive!" I find this nauseating...it's just a form of groveling and playing their game. It doesn't feel genuine.

I participate in all kinds of activities on campus, and sometimes someone will ask me, "do you just do all of those things to say that you do them on your college apps?" The answer always no. I genuinely like everything that I take part in and have never signed up for something just because it "looks" good. I've seen plenty of people who aren't in the same boat, though. At one point sophomore year, many students were submitting applications to a leadership group, myself included, I was really excited about the group and really wanted to be a part of it. In one of my classes, a girl asked another girl if she was applying for the group. "Yeah, I have to get into college somehow," was the response. What a backwards thought, as all I could think. Why should that girl get to take up the spot in the group when someone else actually wants to be in it?

 I've realized about myself, though, that this genuineness is extremely important to me. It's essentially honesty. I understand that I will never be the type to cheat to get ahead or change myself to please someone else. 

Since freshman year there has been this ubiquitous, intangible being called College that we were all terrified of.  And it seems that all we've been doing, especially in the past year, was trying to please College, whether that be with test scores, grades, extracurricular activities, or even just a sob story in a college essay. I haven't like being asked to cater to College's needs in my high school careers. What about what I want? What about pleasing myself first? What about enjoying my high school years instead of having to think about the four years that will follow?

There have been several points in the last few years when I've had to pause and ask myself what I want and follow that guideline instead of serving College whatever it wants on a silver platter. For example, when my last test scores came and were good but not perfect, I had to really ask myself if I wanted to keep trying for a perfect score. I had to make myself stop. I wanted to stop so much. Why would I pour my efforts into showing that I could master this one test?

And on the note of test scores, I should be grateful that there are two standardized tests that all colleges will accept, as I was definitely better suited for the ACT. But I feel as if there should be a few more tests, each measuring different kinds of intelligences. Some people are geared toward the SAT and some towards the ACT, but some need a different kind of test to show what kind of student they are.

The process has certainly made me rethink what I want out of my life. I now have a pretty concrete understanding that in my career, I want to be having a positive impact in the world, hopefully by doing something with conservation, and I want to be producing something like a publication. I value the written word and its ability to have an impact, and I hope that in a magazine I could spread the world about environmentalism as well as stretch my creative muscles in graphic design, breathing in the aesthetic aspects of publication production.

On Empathy, Courage, and Action

Princeton University's large essay on their application has a question which says,

Using the following quotation from “The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society” as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. “Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.” Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University

I've always felt like an extremely empathetic person. When I hear of the terrible things that happen to people everyday I often feel absolutely sick to my stomach imagining the pain that they must be in. But in the cause which is most important to me, environmentalism, my empathetic feelings are shifted more towards the earth itself and the animals that inhabit it. I can use the classic example of polar bears--the precise reason why the World Wildlife Fund and other organizations use them and show you how the mothers can't feed their babies on the decreasing amount of ice is to make you empathize with them and donate. But my most clear, life-changing moment of both empathy and determination came all the way back in the fourth grade.

I'm not completely sure why we did this, but at one point in fourth grade we watched a few videos about deforestation and landfills. I have clear snapshot memories of the landfill video, and it had a huge eye-opening effect. Like most of the other children I had never really considered where my trash went once I threw it away. Surely that was the end of the line; the trash was gone, so why would I think about it? The images of millions of people's garbage covering so much land horrified me, and I felt that deep abjection and aphoria where my entire paradigm of the world shifted. It's hard to express exactly "who" I was having empathy for unless the Earth is a justifiable answer. Over the last few years I have understood more and more that the earth is the being that we inhabit that can't speak for itself, and I've begun to have more and more empathy for it as if it were a person just like you and me.

I could have stopped there, that day in fourth grade, and let the horrors stop. Ignorance is bliss, as they tend to say. But I think my greatest show of courage that resulted from the empathy I had with the Earth was exposing myself to more information that would shock me. I'm constantly searching for more documentaries about everything that we're doing wrong to our Earth, reading more about the science behind climate change, investigating more and more into systems, like waste disposal, that are commonplace but are problematic behind the scenes. Simply searching out more information is the greatest action I think I could have taken. From there, I'm always looking for ways to fix things, starting with myself of course, and spreading the message and ideas to my school community through the Campus Conservation Corps (CCC). Some people take up a cause after being inspired by something, but the inspiration often stems from horror of some kind. I think there's always a day of abjection in our lives when the world is no longer such a wonderful place and we're forced to not only recognized but often cope with what is wrong. The courage step comes between the recognition and the coping, almost just like the quote said. Ever since that video, I have become uber-conscious of my effect on this planet, positive and negative. The Earth needs just as much empathy as any other being, if not more, considering that it is the only being that we all have in common.

Top 10 Myths About Introverts

I absolutely couldn't help but reblog this. I consider myself an introvert even though I have a few extroverted qualities, and I especially relate to the corrections of Myths 5 and 6.

TOP TEN MYTHS ABOUT INTROVERTS

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.

What Piece of Art Would You Like to Analyze?

This is another wonderful question that Wake Forest University asks in its application supplement. It's really quite a difficult one and so needs some freewriting!

As a part of 2010 Wake Forest orientation, the freshman class examined The Andes of Ecuador, a painting by Frederic Church. Next year what work of visual or performing art should the incoming class analyze? Why? 

 Jo Albers' "Homage to a Square"

This is a difficult question because it depends on how you want to "analyze" a painting. There are some wonderful paintings out there with a neat history but that might not be enriching to analyze with a group of eighteen-year-olds. Sometimes you have to give them something rather obscure to analyze  simply for the sake of sparking interesting conversation. For this reason it might be interesting to analyze Jo Albers' "Homage to a Square," which is simply a series of super-imposed squares. As was quoted in a play I read called "The Heidi Chronicals," one character says, “Perception, integration, isolation. Just three squares, and they reflect the gross inadequacies of our society,” and the other responds, “Don’t give me a Marxist interpretation of Albers.” This could be a really interesting starting point for a conversation about this painting.

"Tiananmen Square" by Stuart Franklin

We don't simply have to look at paintings, though; freshmen in college might find it enthralling to look at some of the most influential photographs in history, like the ever-famous "Tiananmen Square" by Stuart Franklin. Since all kinds of rebellions have been happening in 2011, photos like these can spark interesting conversation about governments in other countries and people's ability to rebel and take a stand. Many photos depict the horrors of war due to a country in crisis, and these would be great to study.

Being an environmentalist, of course, I would always be willing to discuss some of the shocking photos out there that show the plight of our planet. The ones that tend to have the most influence are those of animals, like this one, "Oil-Contaminated Bird at the Coast of Alaska" by the German Press Agency. It's a shocking photo of the death that we cause to all kinds of creatures on this planet, and would hopefully be a wake-up call to those that don't think about the consequences of our actions on our planet.

Some pictures could spark interesting spiritual and scientific discussion, such as the photo "Earthrise" by Galen Rowell. I can't imagine the significance of being able to see the Earth from afar--the place that we all inhabit. It's a humbling photo in that the Earth seems unbelievably small, and the rest around it is just blackness. I would love to hear what some future philosophy, theology, and science majors would have to say about his photo taken from the moon.

This is a post that I'll definitely want to continue! 

What Outrages You?

 I am absolutely outraged when people don't care about the environment, or worse, when they spite it. It seems that there are a good many people out there who think that they are above environmental issues or that they're not affected by it. This just blows my mind. Every single person lives on this Earth--it's the only thing that we all share. If we continue living the way that we are living now, we'll run out of natural resources very quickly. I am so frustrated when I see someone throw away a plastic bottle or a can or a stack of papers, and when I remind them that those can be recycled, they either say, "it doesn't matter" or "it's one bottle, what harm could it do?" While it's so easy to fall into the trap of saying, in a world of seven billion people, throwing away one bottle couldn't have that big of an effect. In a sense that is true, but we must remember Gandhi's quote, which goes something like, "what you do probably won't change the world. But it is extremely important that you do it." Besides all of the benefits of recycling a single plastic bottle, by recycling you're also spreading the message that this is an important thing for everyone to be doing. 

There seem to be very few colleges that ask interesting enough questions in their applications. There are a few that do, however, as if evident from the fact that I actually want to write responses to their questions. Today I'll be writing on two of the short answer prompts that Wake Forest asks in their supplement: 

"What outrages you? What are you doing about it?"

Apathy about the environment won't only increase climate change and over-fish our seas and use all of the freshwater on this planet but will destroy our health as we continue to pollute our air and use toxic materials to make products. This is the only cause out there that affects every person on earth. If we don't do something about it now, it'll soon create terrible destruction.

For all of these reasons and many, many more, I've been an active member of my school's Campus Conservation Corps (CCC) since I was a freshman. I've been president both my junior and senior years, and everyday I spend hours trying to help the club raise awareness around campus and make our school more sustainable. Educating the students is crucial to the success of our cause since we hope that the students will take what they learn home and help their families develop green habits. Being in the CCC has not only allowed me to lead my peers in the cause that is most important to me but is the way that I meet amazing people who are making differences in our school, community, and nation, and I learn so much from these people. I hope to double-major in Environmental Science and Journalism so that I can write about environmental topics and make the cause known.