Have Less, Do More, Be More
I guess when you believe in caring excessively for our planet, wanting to tend to every sad soul, and disregarding most people’s judgments, your friends and family begin to refer to you as a quirky, compassionate, free-spirited hippie.
Since I was just a youngster, looking after the environment was critical to me. I always saw it as, we’re living on this planet and if we take care of it, it’ll take care of us. To this day, I always try (to convince others as well) to use as few plastic products as possible, not take unnecessarily long or frequent showers, and conserve energy and gas. It would also really hurt to witness trees getting cut down knowing they keep us safe during floods and provide us with oxygen. These things all meant and still mean so much to me. This opened many more doors in my life as I grew older. It became much more then just looking after the environment. I began realizing we live in such a corrupted world where, unless we look really hard and have a lot of money, are pretty much forced to eat all these artificial foods and drinks. We’re also given a life layout: go to college, graduate, work off the loan, find your significant other if you haven’t already, marry, have children, work to provide for your family. Get all the technology for your family and sit around on it all day. Wear all the makeup, take “selfies,” and wear all brand name clothing. Too consumed with their own lives to care about others. When I noticed this pattern in everyone’s life and very few people genuinely very happy, I realized this isn’t something we have to follow. It’s just the conventions that society has given us and made it so that if you don’t follow it, you’re frowned upon. That’s when I realized I will live my life how I imagine myself happiest and help others do the same. As Ghandi once said, “In a gentle way you can shake the world.”
Whenever my mother and I would go shopping when I was younger, I remember always being too grateful at the end towards the wrong person. At the register, I’d always say to the cashier, not my mother, “thank you so much, I appreciate it. Have a great day!” My mom would then look at me, laugh and tell me, “Great manners, little girl, but they weren’t the ones just paying for your things!” as she’d continue to laugh. I would laugh too, then realize she was right, she deserves to be thanked a bunch and be showered with hugs. However, that somehow didn’t stop me from still thanking the cashiers a little. When my mother noticed I was continuing to thank the cashiers, she explained how she thinks it’s very sweet, but didn’t understand why I felt the need to constantly be so thankful every time. I didn’t really know how to answer at first because I didn’t really know why either. I just felt the need to thank everybody. Then finally an answer came out of me that I didn’t expect or even mean to say, but I really liked it and learned a lot about myself! I answered her with, “because while we’re the ones buying, they are the ones working. They can’t be too happy about that so why not let them know what they’re doing is appreciated and spread some happiness in their day.” My mom responded with a simple nod and face expression of approval, impressed. I noticed a change in attitude with her whenever we went shopping together after that. At registers, she would start making more conversation and making the cashiers laugh. I realized she was spreading joy in her own way and I was grateful to have influenced her to do so. I thought, if I continue to act this way around other people, maybe it’ll rub off a little. Not only would I be making someone else’s day a little brighter, but it’d be causing other people to maybe follow my lead. I soon found the quote in a magazine, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I thought the idea of having one person causing drastic changes was a little ridiculous, but I taped it to my wall as it was inspiring. It eventually became something I could live by.
Ever since smartphones became very in demand, it was all people would engross themselves with. How could you not? There’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr… you name on it, it’s on there! I got caught up with all of it, too. However, I realized my life was beginning to revolve around it and it was causing me to feel isolated. I thought, “it can’t be only be feeling this way..” That’s when I gradually started cutting out technology from my life. I removed myself from Facebook, my biggest addiction. I forbid myself to get Netflix, and a limited amount of applications on my phone. We all know that’s not an easy task to do. Though doing so left me with so little to do with my time which brought me to the idea that during this time, I can go outside and enjoy nature, read, go on adventures, and build a closer relationship with those around me. Just overall do more productive things with my time and life. I saw that if I did not actually have these technologies that we’re so “privileged to have,” we could all make more of ourselves. “Have Less, Do More, Be More,” my favorite quote states.
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