#4 Erik Assadourian

 After reading Erik Assadourian’s article, it has really put me on a slightly different point of view. On the stand point of ecological footprints, it’s hard to believe that we could possibly use more than what the earth is capable of producing, but reading all of the statistics, it may be believable and we are in a great downfall.  The more money we as humans have, the more we consume. We are in a depression right now, but we are still spending.  We are using and consuming more and more than what we should be demanding from the earth and sooner or later we are going to crash, not physically. On the norms part, it is hard for us humans to change.  We are not going to change, if we do, it will be a miracle. As stated by Mr. Assadourian, climate will change, and it is due to our heavy consumption.  A way to look at this is through consumerism. We want to compete with others in our social status with goods and services.  Each year it grows more and more.  People have to realize that these big consumptions will not always lead to success or well-being, which a lot of people fail to believe. You could buy everything in the world and still not be happy, but some people do believe this.  A lot of people try to take the easy way out, and I admit that I do sometimes as well. I rarely go to fast food restaurants, but on occasions, I do. This is the norm for most people.  Water is another. I try to filter most of the water I drink, but sometimes I get into  bind and am really thirsty, so I’ll purchase bottled water, which should be free.  It is hard to change, but if we don’t do something, then years to come, there may not be any hope. We have to start educating and letting people know that more is not always better, and elaborate more on the natural things in life.  We also have to start eliminating waste. In Assadourian’s terms “Cradle to Cradle. Things need to be completely recyclable and we need to start using renewable resources. We make the waste, not the animals or agriculture. So, we need to try to eliminate it.

#3 Favorite Place at FGCU

My favorite place on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus would have to be the little pond with the fountain.  Every day that I do have class, I walk from the Resort and Hospitality department to the Library, which this semester, will be three times a week.  I love walking by it, because I can hear the water from the fountain splash into the pond. It is so peaceful and gets my mind off of stressful things which occasionally go on in my life. It is also fun to look in the pond, because you never know when an alligator may pop up. There have been alligators before and I know they are in there, so I always try to look for them. I have only found one once, and it was a baby alligator. This was a couple years ago when I was checking on my application status to even attend FGCU. Ever since then, I have always looked in the pond.  Now, I usually only see turtles floating through the water.  You can also hear small splashes sometimes which are not coming from the fountain itself, but the different wildlife in the pond. It is also nice to look at how the plant life in the pond is growing. It has grown a lot since I first started FGCU, and each semester it always looks slightly different.  After I graduate in May, I will actually miss walking by the little pond. But, hopefully one day I will have to come back to FGCU for some reason and I will make sure I take a look at the pond and see how it has changed.

# 2 Sense of Place

Right now, my current “sense of place” is basically school and work. I take 18 credits for school and work 40 hours a week, as well as homework. I feel like I really don’t have much time for anything else but school and work. I’ve actually lost a lot of motivation to do some of the things I love and would usually do every day, such as cook and run.   I loved running because I would always run outside and try to explore new places to go and find different things to look at. When I was a student at Florida Southern University in Lakeland Florida, I would run about 40-45 miles a week and it was just beautiful. The city was made of dozens of different lakes with different wildlife and plants at each one.  That was probably my favorite thing to do to get my mind off of things.

Now, I work on Fort Myers beach as the Activity Director. I do get out doors a lot, since I try to gather up as many bean-bag and Volleyball games I can outside of our resort.  I do love my job and get the luxury to take care of my 55 gal. fish tank and a dozen of little Hermit crabs. It’s fun, so I can’t complain too much.

I would love to learn more about what I can do about helping the beach about making sure it is always clean. Whenever I see trash out on the beach, especially outside of my resort, I always pick it up. I’ve learned a lot and I hope to learn even more. I think that working so much will really help me in the future with being organized and appreciating the time I actually have off to do things for myself.

#1 Colloquim Expectations

At first, I thought Colloquium will be just another mandatory class that I needed to take before I graduate, but after my first class, it made me realize how I take little things for granted. I first thought Colloquium was basically learning how to help the environment. I now recognize that if I don’t do something now, than it can affect me later on down the road. Simple things, such as recycling can make a big difference. I would like to learn how to recycle a lot more than I do at home as well as at work. My work goes through paper like water and if we can reuse unwanted printer paper as scraps or the other side of the paper then that can even make a difference. I know it’s just the act, but we don’t do it, and I would like to get the hang of doing it more often. 

I love learning new things, and another thing I would love to learn about are the different types of animals in southwest Florida and how we can help them if they we to get into danger. Just like all of the Pythons which have been released into the everglades. There should be something done about that, but how would we be able to help?

My first class in Colloquium, we also learned about our galaxy and stars, and that is very interesting to me. I watch “The Universe” a lot at home and it’s nice to know about some of the things I hear about in class as well on TV. I do hope we will continue to learn some more about space, as well as beyond our galaxy.

I am looking forward to my Colloquium class, and I hope after this class, it will help me become more eco-friendly.