Sophie Jerchower-Section 308

I was unsure of how to proceed with my plastic free day so I decided to look at some blogposts first before I took the challenge. After reading, I realized it was extremely important to plan ahead. THANK GOODNESS, I read some of the class's posts because if not I would have been very ill prepared. This may be cheating, but I figured if I was going to survive this day, I needed to take some precautions.

I took the challenge on December 2nd. However, the night before I set everything out so I would be prepared for the next day in the morning. Next, I made myself lunch for the following day. I haven't done this in ages and it started to bring back childhood memories; I began to get excited for my challenge. I went to bed and dreamt of all the ways I could be plastic free.

My roommate woke me up in the morning since she had and 8:50 lab to go to which is the worst, but she's the best. Anyway, I woke up to a semi sunny room; I didn't turn any lights on since the switch was plastic but I thought about this the night before and raised my blinds so the sunlight would enter my room in the morning. I went into the bathroom where my roommate was getting ready. She squirted some toothpaste on my finger and I proceeded to brush my teeth. I decided it was a little to much for her to put on my deodorant, so I skipped that part of my day. I then went to go get my lunch out of the fridge and my roommate helped me once again by opening and closing it. I was beginning to think this challenge wouldn't be so hard, but then I realized I had been helped all morning. Finally, my roommate left and I was all alone.

I went to my room and got dressed for the day in clothes made from no plastic. Finally, it was time to go to class so I grabbed my bag, locked my door, and went downstairs to the lobby of my apartment. There's free coffee here, so naturally I get some every morning. However, this morning was totally different. A got myself one of the eco-friendly recyclable cups and filled it up with coffee, but I couldn't take a lid seeing as it was plastic. I also couldn't add any cream since it was in plastic, so I sipped down some bitter black coffee.

Seeing as I have no bike or moped, I walked to class like I do everyday while avoiding plastic at all costs. As I walked to class while constantly spilling coffee all over me, I remembered that I left my ipod and phone home so I wouldn't use the plastic. I got to class, took out my loose leaf and wooden pencils I packed for the day and started to take notes. I have five classes on thursdays, so not thinking about plastic during the day was easy when I was so busy taking notes. I ate my lunch in the middle of the day which consisted of a sandwhich in tin foil, an apple, crackers (which I also put in tin foil, not the best idea, but only option), and water from my lovely non plastic Sigg. During my short breaks from class I wrote note cards for my upcoming finals. Yay....SIKE.

I, finally, was done with class at 5:30 and still had yet to use plastic! I came into my room exhausted and immediately passed out until my roommate woke me up and asked if I wanted to go get dinner. We finally left at 8:00, got some yummy food, and sat down to eat a delicious meal at Za's, my favorite. My roommate asked me about my non plastic day and I told her my tale of how I found the challenge surprising easy. I explained to her how I had avoided using plastic for the entire day. Though this may sound lame, I was extremely impressed with my accomplishment. After I finished my story, I noticed my roommate had a confused look on her face. Maybe she didn't understand why I was excited? Maybe she didn't comprehend how I refrained from using plastic? And then she said what she was thinking...

"Sophie, didn't you just use your debit card to pay for the food?"

As I was about to say yes, it hit me. I used my debit card, my plastic debit card. I sat in the booth and stared at my food while my roommate started to laugh. I had failed the challenge after the entire day, I couldn't believe it and had a hard time accepting it. After I failed, I decided against continuing to try to not use plastic. I realized that though technically I didn't use plastic all day, I had planned out every move. For the few seconds I took my mind off the challenge, I managed to fail it. People come in contact with plastics everyday; its next to impossible to avoid them.