When I sat down to write this journal many things came to mind. I thought of writing about how busy I was with school assignments, or about how much fun it is to party on the weekends, or even about how hard it is to live with a roommate. But then, since the place I spend most of my time is in class, I decided to write about the way that one of my classes has been affecting the outlook that I have had on the college experience so far.
This quarter, I took my first environmental studies class. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class, because the experience affected me in different ways that classes usually do. First it helped me to figure out that I am really interested in staying in the environmental studies field. I found myself constantly engaged in most of the readings and actively participating in class discussions. Part of the reason I reacted this way was because the topics that were brought up in class were ones that deeply spoke to me. I felt a true connection to the subjects, and would like to continue to study these subjects during my future years. One of the reoccurring themes in this class was the idea of sustainability, especially sustainable development. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Perhaps this concept is one of the main reasons people are interested in studying the environment—to figure out how to develop and expand our wellbeing, but in a way that preserves resources, so that future generations can have the resources that they need.
Learning ways that sustainable development can be achieved has ensured my interest in continuing to study things related to the subject. I have learned in the past that one of the best ways to understand what is going on with ourselves is to look at the things that we are interested in. So, not only did I understand and agree with the literal meaning of sustainable development, I also found ways that this concept could apply to myself and the experiences that I have been through over the past months. I started to value the importance of personally developing in a sustainable way. I mean growing and developing from all the new experiences I’ve had during this new phase of my life, but still preserving the core aspects of my personality. Being in college has proven to be a time during which I am exposed to many different ideas, lifestyles and personalities; all of these things contribute to my development as a person and a scholar. But the reason I am growing in this way is because of the characteristics I have carried with me long before I even got to college. To keep developing in the future I must preserve those aspects of my personality. So in a way, this is the sustainable development of my feelings and life experiences. College is a place to gain knowledge and experience life in full, but not to let these experiences overwhelm the core essence of your personality.
Amanda Wolffenbuttel
