My marching band finally made it to the bus after a hot day at Disney. Coming from New York in winter, the hot temperature change was welcoming, but we needed adjustment. I can still remember the sweat dripping down my face. Now, here is the part my friends will never let me forget. We were all resting up and hydrating when suddenly my friend asked if anyone had extra water. She was in the row across from me. I hesitantly looked at her, then down to my ice-cold reusable water bottle in my hand, and back to her sweating face. I knew I had to help, so I meekly replied I had some. Yet, one look at my expression, and she said never mind.  

Life as a semi-food germaphobe has been challenging for me, yet it is a quirk that I am glad to have because it makes me who I am. While I sometimes refrain from eating delicious homemade desserts from friends or tear up when someone touches the corner of my dinner plate, being peculiar (to say the least) about germs has allowed me to not only to find friends and communities who accept me but pushed me to be more outgoing and opinionated.  

Does anyone ever have that moment when you knew you met your best friend?  Well, my moment was in French class during high school. Our teacher brought in doughnuts as a nice treat (or belle gâterie as she called it). Then before the teacher even handed out the doughnuts, my friend yelled wait! And she asked that the teacher give me a doughnut first. As embarrassed as I was, it is true that I did get first pick and I did eat that donut. 

My germaphobia has not only become a magnet for future soul sisters, but it taught me that if I have an issue, it is my responsibility to speak up. While numerous uncomfortable situations have arisen, if I speak up about my issues, the people around me are always accommodating and it can even turn into laughs. This rationality has even transcended from my views on cleanliness into my stance on the environment and other societal problems. I have learned that sometimes it is awkward to do things not yet the status quo, like specifying no straws when I order a drink or bringing containers to restaurants, but that it is necessary to start sustainably changing my lifestyle.  

So, while my quirk has caused me many awkward confrontations, it has also inspired me to grow and not only find people who appreciate me for me but prompted me to love myself and inspire positive changes. 

So, I believe in embracing your quirks, even if consists of being afraid of food germs. 

Some notes:

• This essay is only 460 words and the requirement is 500-600. I will need to add more. 
• A concern I have is organization. I think I give a thesis in the last sentence of the second paragraph and then my next body is explaining one thing I learned from my quirk, and the body after that is another thing I learned from my quirk. I am not sure how well everything flows though
• Another thing to note is I think I need more reflection here. I am worried my essay is shaped very similarly to the milk before cereal essay. I will need to somehow add more reflections that I learned from the stories I present.
• I know I can definitely add more to the environmental stance part of this essay because that is a huge part of me and it only got like 2 sentences. I am just not sure how to expand it.
• I think it would be cool to add a prevailing theme/metaphor about food and germaphobia throughout the piece, but I am not sure how to do that.

This is my blog announcement about my confirmed future blogs!

Passion Blog: Endangered Species OTW

Civic Issue  Blog Idea: Fact or Myth of Consumers Environmental Actions

I will be looking into actions the average consumer is told to take to reduce their environmental footprint to expose how much of an impact it really has. Through this blog, I hope to gain solid evidence on why even the littlest actions could help, and also show how in some cases, more action is needed to have a bigger effect!

Hello blog, I’m back! Happy New Year!

“This I Believe” podcast ideas:

Honestly… I have no clue. I have spent an hour reading other people’s stories and nearly everyone has made me burst into tears because I was able to relate to their fears and challenges in some way. Maybe it was a child growing up, a parent passing away, the realization that you are not a princess or a superstar… All I have taken away from reading these stories is that one, I am an emotional person, and two, I have a lot of fears. Typing this out is making me question why I am like this, and potentially a topic can come out of those. But ask me what I believe? I don’t know. I could easily say I believe in living every day to the fullest, always be thankful, or even seize every moment (which was the quote on my graduation cap). But, all these seemingly obvious truths to live by just don’t resonate clearly with me and I feel I don’t follow these truths as much as I would love to. So, this is a very unproductive answer, but I will keep reflecting on myself to see if I can find what I truly believe in and who I am.

This got deep for no reason haha. I rethought it and I remember a story relating to my food germaphobia that might be interesting to go into as it is a big part of who I am and how I react to certain things.

Passion Blog Idea:

I will be continuing with revealing an endangered species every week! There are so many I have yet to post about, and unfortunately, the list seems endless.

Civic Issue  Blog Ideas:

I think this would be the perfect opportunity to blog about the things I do or hear relating to the environment and research what impact they truly have. For example, how much better for the environment is it to use reusable straws and containers? What about bags? Why do we need to unplug chargers and turn off lights when they are not in use? How much of an impact does eating meatless on Mondays truly have? These are all questions I ask myself and I give a simple answer of “Oh, It’s good for the environment so we should all do this.” But what are the real facts behind this, and if I know these answers, could I give proper arguments to family and friends on the importance of changing their daily habits in these ways? I think so, and this blog will give me the push I need to do the research.