I just heard from Teen Travel Writers that my essay was chosen as the 2018 winner in their International Travel Essay contest. This essay helped remind me what motivates me to keep working on Bags for the Ocean and my other projects, so I wanted to share it here. Whatever keeps you motivated, keep doing it!
When I was a freshman in high school, I found my place on campus through our environmental club, also known as Global Student Embassies. I met students from other grades and made all kinds of new friends as we managed our organic school garden. The most important piece of the club for me however was the volunteer trips we took to Latin America to teach other high schoolers about sustainable agriculture while building school gardens and doing reforestation work in the awe-inspiring jungles outside of the towns where we worked. My freshman year we traveled to the Mawmoní jungle in Panama to learn about deforestation and the effects of slashing and burning on the environment. After my freshman year with the club, I thought I was a pro: I had seen it all, done it all, knew the biointensive farming methods by heart, and was not afraid to get my hands dirty. But when we landed in Cuenca, Ecuador my sophomore year, things went a little differently than expected. Even after spending an extra day getting acclimated to the altitude before we could start working, the air felt extremely thin. The teachers and trip leaders were different, none of my friends from the last year had come, and I had a hard time understanding Spanish in the rural Ecuadorian accent. It was harder and less rewarding work: we spent days digging trenches in the rain and mud for irrigation and didn’t even really do a good job of it, needing to stay late to re-do work that we didn’t get right the first time. All in all, I was tired and homesick, and although I loved the work that we were doing and the cause we championed, I simply wanted to go home. On the last day of the trip, just before we headed out on the seven-hour bus ride back to the airport, we had a vacation day to sightsee around Ecuador. As the trip was coming to a close, I was ready to go and continue my work for the environment from the comfort of my California suburb. We woke up early, packed all of our things into our little bus, and fell back asleep, praying that the rickety old thing would make it up the narrow dirt roads. When I woke up and looked out the window, I saw the most spectacular mountain views imaginable. The bus was climbing up the side of a mountain pass heading to Cajas National Park in the Andes. I pulled out my camera and shot some shakey video of the landscape from out my dirty window. I looked around to the other people on the trip to see if they were in awe as I was, but most of them were still asleep as we reached the crest of the first mountain and got our first real view over the landscape. We were all told to dress warm, and were glad of the advice as the frosty mist rolled over the hills below us. We drove past alpacas quietly munching on grass, and the higher we climbed, the more mountains we could see across the horizon. I watched in rapture out my window for the rest of the trip as we climbed past mountain upon mountain. When the bus rolled to a stop at Mirador Tres Cruces for our first hike of the day, I was the first person out of the bus. I shivered a little in the frosty air as gentle raindrops dripped down my back. The hike was a straight shot up hundreds of worn-down steps to the lookout at the top. As we hiked, the temperature dropped and the rain grew harder. The steps were built into the side of the muddy mountain and the makeshift railing had broken away for long stretches of trail. The top of the hill was the lookout, and only a precarious guardrail at the peak kept us safe from the drop off of the rocky cliff side. I can’t describe how breathtaking the view was. With the thick cloud layer masking the sky, all of the mountains seemed to pop out of the background like a movie set There were more than I could ever count, each with their own unique shade of dark green. Studded with rocks and aquamarine blue lakes in between, they looked like they had each been individually designed by a skilled painter. Tendrils of stark white fog and cloud flowed in between the valleys, accenting the depth of color of each. Very few things in life have ever truly left me breathless, but the view from that perilously tall peak did. The altitude may have helped. While the park looks fairly barren, without a tree or animal in sight, it’s one of the most biodiverse places in Ecuador. We looked closely to the ground at all of the intricate species of moss and flowers, adapted to survive the perpetually frosty and cold climate, and we hiked through high grasslands full of endemic plants and the high mountain forest full of endangered trees and the quickly disappearing cloud forest, marveling at each along the way. This day in the mountains gave me a taste of the power of travel. I fell in love with the landscape and the plants and made a promise to myself to return. The view and the experience reminded me why I dedicate my time to working in our school garden and educating others about the importance of composting and recycling. Why I travel to build organic gardens and volunteer teaching kids about the importance of bees and other pollinators. That day put the entire trip, and a lot of the things I do, into perspective. I want to dedicate my life to protecting gorgeous places like these, and preserving their biodiversity for the next person to see and the cloud forests for others to discover.
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Plastic grocery bags are routinely discarded after a single use. Instead of tossing them out with the trash, you can try to repurpose used bags into plarn!
Plastic yarn, otherwise known as “plarn”, is made by cutting a plastic bag into strips and then stitching the strips together as with regular yarn. After stitching them together and forming one continuous piece, the plarn can easily be knitted into reusable shopping bags, welcome mats, coasters and more. Why use plarn? Apart from the creativity and durability of using strung together pieces of plastic, plarn also helps to reduce plastic waste consumption by repurposing something that likely would have found its way to slowly deteriorating in a landfill or polluting the ocean. Instead of discarding something that takes between 10 and 1000 years to decompose, why not transform them into a sturdy reusable tote bag? In order to make plarn, follow these simple step-by-step instructions from Leisure Arts YouTube video, How to Make Plarn. Step 1: Gather several grocery bags. The amount will vary depending on the desired size of the bag, but anywhere around 50 bags should do the trick. Step 2: Lay the bags out on a flat surface, smoothing out any creases and folds. Step 3: Fold the bag in half lengthwise three times, then cut off the top handles as well as the bottom seam. Step 4: Cut the bag into 1 inch strips. Step 5: Open each strip and lay them out on a flat surface. Using two pieces at a time, create a slip knot to string the individual pieces together. Continue doing this until one continuous strand is formed. Once all the pieces have been joined together to form a single strand, begin making a reusable shopping bag following these instructions from Etsy. To begin making a reusable grocery bag, start by first making the base of the bag. Decide on the size and chain about 20 stitches (add more for a wider base), then turn and begin crocheting as normal. Once the desired width is reached, use a single, double, or half double stitch (depending upon preference) and begin working around the base (instead of back and forth). After the desired depth of the bag is reached, begin working on the handles. This can be done by crocheting the handles separately and then sewing them on with more plarn or by crocheting it on the bag itself. I have to disclose that I’ve been a total failure at making plarn, mostly because I seem to lack the patience to see it through to a final finished product, but also because I may have done too good a job getting my family to eliminate plastic bags - I couldn’t find enough to make anything! But I’m committed to using the bags that come our way toward a successful plarn project sometime in the coming months, if for no other reason than to relieve the stress of applying to college. Have you made a plarn project? Share a picture with us, and we’ll share it here! |
B4tOThis little project is growing! Thanks to everyone who's been involved so far. You can get involved too! Archives
December 2018
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