Removed

So I'm finally back home in Platte County. As soon as I turned on my computer this afternoon, I was immediately reminded of my context: Internet bandwidth is limited, and connectivity is slower than a sleepy sloth. On top of that, our cell phone reception is finicky at best. I tried to upload a few photos I just had developed, and after a few minutes of waiting, gave up. Which, now that I type it out, seems like a rather "uptown" complaint--there's Internet access at all, and I've been remarkably spoiled by Wellesley's omnipresent, ultra-fast wi-fi.

This awareness of resources applies outside of technology, too. When I went to wash my hands, I let the water warm up for a few solid seconds before remembering how finite water is (my parents' house lacks public water access, which means we haul our supply from a nearby town and store it in a cistern under our house). This realization was minute, but felt important.  At least for a moment, I considered my habits of consumption and (more broadly) the ways in which I interact with the world around me.

By no means am I arguing that everyone should throw up their hands and move into the countryside, away from the comforts of "modern living." Nor am I attempting to paint myself as a saint of conservation. To be honest, even in my moments of reflection I'm still more wasteful than most people—I threw away like half a bottle of spicy mustard while I was moving out last week.

Nonetheless, I wonder how much less waste we would generate if everyone took a bigger part in the harnessing of their own resources.

Or maybe that's crazy talk. I'm still pretty jumbled from school/traveling.

One of my favorite drives on the planet