Day 14: Reflection

And the challenge is over! I'm going to wrap myself up in saran wrap and just soak in the plastic!

Just kidding. Obviously. 

I'm extremely glad that I put myself through this. It forced me to be more observant, and make changes in my lifestyle at an accelerated rate. And keeping the blog was a good way to make sure I didn't forget about the challenge. It is easy for me to give up when I just have to think about myself, but having a blog made me accountable to (all three of) my readers, and I felt a sense of responsibility to keep going, even if I made mistakes along the way. 

There are a few themes that were reoccurring during the challenge, but the one that struck me the hardest was how our convenience, processed, and fast-paced lifestyle is so intrinsically linked and embedded into plastic. It seems really obvious in retrospect, and I always superficially understood that before starting this challenge. But it wasn't until I denied myself these conveniences that I really started to notice all the links.

As soon as I denied myself plastic, all processed food was out of the question. All the cosmetics I owned were out of the question. Buying anything new was mostly out of the question as well - anything from bed sheets to even (ironically) a package of paper bags involved purchasing plastic. Buying myself a snack or lunch at the cafeteria was out of the question. 

I've been forced to become more organized.  I had to think about what I wanted to eat that afternoon, that day, or that week. I had to constantly plan ahead. I had to decide if I would be coming home in the evening, or studying all night after class at the university.  

I also found myself practicing many lost life skills in the midst of this challenge. With processed foods out of the question, I found myself cooking from scratch more often than not. I even made myself a face mask at home. This is something I regret not expanding on. I plan to make more products (like soap) for myself in the near future. Not to mention, all this has been cost effective for me as a single person. 

But was all of this time effective? Not really. 

It was difficult to get everything that was expected from me in terms of homework and school - and then on top of that make entire meals and other products from scratch. And I think this is why plastic is able to become so prevalent in our society. It gives us time.  

I wonder - time for what? I could be wrong about this, but my first thoughts went to how many more hours we work in the West compared to the rest of the world. It has become such a norm to hold more than one job.

Personally, it is hard not to get sucked into plastic's promise of time. But I hope that the self-fulfillment, healthier and more envirofriendly lifestyle I've experienced in the past two weeks will keep me going! I won't be updating as often as I have in the last two weeks, but I definitely would like to keep this project of reducing my plastic consumption going.