Hello, Internet travelers! Welcome to my blog, Viridorari
(Latin, meaning “to become green”).
My name is
Faith, and I’m a high school senior in a small town school in New York with
college fast approaching. I’m an International Baccalaureate (IB) student, and
for those of you who don’t know what that is, I’ll briefly explain. IB is a
rigorous and advanced high school program that not only creates better
preparedness for college level learning, but aims to help students become more
globally minded (as the name suggests). IB students take a deeper look into many
viewpoints, we explore global issues, and we are encouraged to be more
creative, critical thinkers.
Lately,
I’ve been spending a lot of time doing some self reflection and asking myself
what I can do to lead a healthier life, not just for myself, but for the people
around me, and, most importantly, for the environment. This bout of inward contemplation
has accompanied the nostalgia that naturally comes from reaching the end of
high school, combined with my recent experiment with a fruit fast, my study of
the Indian religious text, the Bhagavad
Gita, learning more about the life of Mohandas and Kasturba Gandhi for my
Historical Investigation, and finally, listening to the podcast, “The Duncan
Trussell Family Hour.”
I feel that
I’m currently on a path to a lot of personal changes, and one of the new ideas
that came to me was starting this blog. I was inspired in French class while
doing our most recent IB writing assignment. Our current unit in French is on
the environment. Interestingly enough, for the writing assignment I created a
mock “blog” as the method for expressing my ideas.
I’ve been
passionate about nature and animals since I was a kid. I often chose National
Geographic movies over cartoons. My first dabbling in activism came when I was
eight years old. Concerned about society’s general fear and distaste for my
favorite animals, bats, I created bat fliers with information about common
myths, why bats are good for the environment, and how to safely remove a bat
from a house. My mom’s friend happily installed the fliers at her greenhouse’s
check-out counter. Around a year ago, I discovered the horrible truths about
the treatment of animals in the farming industry. Moved to anger and tears
about what I had learned, I committed myself to eating only organic or
Certified Humane meat, using my consumer power to support farms that raise
animals the right way. If humane or organic meat is unavailable, I assume
vegetarianism. My proper title is “humaneitarian,” not to be confused with
humanitarian!
Today, as a young adult, I find
myself constantly struggling with my inherent materialism and the desire to do
my part for the planet’s health. Especially since becoming an IB student, I
question myself constantly. Does what I just did conflict with my ideals? What
could I have done differently? What can I do better in the future? How can I
inspire others to do better?
This blog is one of the first steps
I’m taking to fulfill those last two questions, and to help me understand
myself better in accordance with the first two questions. I have an idea so far
of how the blog will be structured. I originally wanted one formal weekly post,
but it was brought to my attention by a few people that while I’m a long-winded
writer, most people like short and sweet. Now I’m planning on splitting up my
different ideas, with each one having their designated day of the week to be
posted. While these formal ideas will be on a schedule, there’s a possibility that
I’ll post random thoughts and rants as the inspiration comes for them. When
something moves me, I cope with it by writing. As for what’s included in the
scheduled posts, these are the ideas I have so far:
·
Saturday: Green Challenge of the Week- This comes
out on Saturday so you have all of Sunday to plan and get ready for the
challenge in the upcoming week. The challenge will provide a way for you to
incorporate greener habits into your life… but just as the title suggests, it
will be a challenge. Consider yourself warned!
·
Monday: Harsh Fact of the Week (self
explanatory)
Reveal The Animal of the Month-
Tidbits of information about this endangered animal will be provided in every
blog post for the entire month.
Ecofriendly Economics- Ways to be greener without spending lots of
green.
·
Wednesday:
Recycling Projects for Kids- Craft
activities that will keep the kids happy and busy, along with showing them how
fun being green can be!
·
Friday: Activism Spotlight- A report on an
individual, group, or organization who has done something outstanding and
noteworthy for the environment. Hopefully it will be an inspiration stimulant
for readers!
Suggested
Reading- A review of a news article, book, or website that provides
interesting reading material about the environment.
·
Guest
Writer of the Week- This person will write something interesting related to
the blog, and give readers a break from my yapping so they can read someone
else’s yappings. Hopefully, the Guest Writer will assume responsibilities for
one of my formal ideas, allowing me to rest!
·
A voting
poll- Where you get to vote on stuff! Your opinion matters to me, and I
will make sure the readers have an ability to influence the blog.
Posts will be out by 6:00pm on
their designated day of the week.
The first Animal of the Month will
be an endangered bat species, because that’s my favorite animal! Hopefully, if
the blog has a significant amount of viewers, I will be able host a vote for
the Animal of the Month so that readers can be more involved in the blog.
The French writing assignment that
inspired me to start this blog had to be based off of three sources that the
teacher gave us. One of the sources was a song about our dying planet, and the
lyrics really stuck with me. One of the lines essentially translates to; “we
need to get started now, because it’s already too late.” How true is that?
We’re already pushing Earth to its limits. The environmental dilemma isn’t
something we can pawn off on the next generation, while simultaneously blaming it
on the people before us. We’re all contributing to this global epidemic, and no
matter how hard we try to close our eyes and yell “lalalalalala!” it’s not
going away. It’s time we accept the role we’re playing in nature’s demise, and
it’s time to make amends.
I don’t know about you, but my
childhood was filled with outdoor playtime in the field and the woods. I
climbed trees as easily as I walked. I’ve always had a deep love for animals,
and for that I can thank my first dog, a black Labrador retriever named Sheba.
Maybe for you it was Fluffy the cat or Cheeks the hamster.
I want the adventure of playing
outside and the joy of animals to be available for my children as they’re
growing up. What about you? If your answer is yes, then stay tuned, my first
Green Challenge is coming out tomorrow by 6pm! Viridorari will help you live a
healthier life, for you, for those around you, and for the planet.
If you have questions, suggestions,
comments, or you are interested in being a Guest Writer (whether or not your
topic matches one of my scheduled posts), please contact me at viridorari@yahoo.com.
Now, to kick this blog off with a
common, but fitting quote from one of my heroes: “You must be the change you
wish to see in the world.” –Mohandas Gandhi
Mentioned in this post:
·
International Baccalaureate program
-
Giggles for IB students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt-yas76TDw
·
Fruit Fasting
-
A healthy, challenging way to cleanse your body,
test your will power, and lose weight.
-
Websites that helped me: http://www.allaboutfasting.com/fruit-fasting.html
and http://www.fitnessthroughfasting.com/fruit-fasting.html
·
Bhagavad
Gita
·
Mohandas and Kasturba Gandhi
-
We all learned about Gandhi in history class,
the saintly man who freed India from British rule and selflessly devoted
himself to service and human rights.
-
For my historical investigation, I found these books
particularly interesting and inspiring: The
Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur Gandhi by Arun Gandhi (Mohandas
and Kasturba’s grandson), and All Men are
Brothers: Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as Told in His Own Words, a
UNESCO production.
·
“The Duncan Trussell Family Hour”
-
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to download the free Podcast App
in the iTunes Store. Episodes of the
DTFH are also free.
-
The podcast is made up of the hilarious thoughts,
philosophies, and rants of Duncan Trussell, a comedian and skilled speaker, and
his podcast’s guests. The topics he talks about are endless.
-
Despite the name, I do not suggest listening to
this podcast with the younger kids. I do, however, strongly encourage it for
your teenager! Still, you should probably preview a few episodes before
sharing.
·
Humaneitarianism
-
Unfortunately, I could not track down the video
that converted me, but if you’re feeling daring and your stomach is empty,
search “the truth about industry farming” on Google. You’ll find plenty of
videos that are just as disgusting and life changing, I’m sure.
·
Certified Humane
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