Author: Celia Castellano

Furman has trees? Who knew??? Hopped up on Einstein’s coffee and DH cookies, rushing to Plyler to sit in lab for three hours, then to the library for a while to stare into a screen as the day darkens and the screen brightens, then back out again for an RLC meeting, and finally I plop into my bed around midnight to do it all over again tomorrow. This is the life of a Furman student, with some minor changes specific to each person. See, what I’ve noticed since being at Furman is that even though we have one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, we spend most of our time inside. Yea, I get my daily dose of the outdoors when I walk to class too, but is that really enough? Take one step onto Furman’s campus and you can see our multitude of trees that surround the campus, but where are all the people enjoying it?

And while the major talk at furms right now is why all the trees are being cut down I’m gonna talk about the ones that are already here. Just a stones throw away from our humble aboad (The Cabbage) is the lovely lake. And right beyond that is what I like to call the Furman Forest. With walking trails and hidden ponds, there’s a whole different world behind main campus. I’ve wandered around enough to find the serene walking trails that intertwine within the woods. And only a small sign points you in their direction, but once you’ve found the trails you can’t believe you’re still on a college campus. There’s no wifi, no buildings, no remnants of humanity besides maybe the trail itself, but somehow it’s still interesting. Taking a moment away from the craziness of Furman can actually calm you. Yea netflix helps too, but there’s something about the outdoors that takes your mind off the stress of classes. So if you want to kick back, relax and forget about your troubles for just a few minutes each day…meet me by the tree.

-Celia C

 

“I’m living in an apartment next year”.

“OOO. I still have to live in the dorms.”

“I’m living in my fraternity house, it’s way cheaper. Celia, where are you living next year?”

“I’m living in a sustainable cabin”

All of my friends just laughed, rolled their eyes, and said, “you would, Celia”

My friends, along with a large majority of the population, have this preconception that only certain people would ever voluntarily live in an eco-cabin. But why? Why does it have to be that only an environmentally minded person would live in an eco-friendly cabin? Us environmentally-minded folks generally find ourselves removed from the rest of society at times. However, the complexity of sustainability issues requires that everyone, in every profession, in every area of the world should start to care about these deep-rooted unsustainable practices that can cause irreparable damage. We should become the majority instead of the minority. In my effort to make aware these unintended environmental issues that have become so engrained in American society, I chose to live in the Greenbelt cabins.

However, many times people have misconceptions about what the cabins do. Being environmentally conscious has become an onerous undertaking in society’s mind. Thus when people hear the reality of the eco-cabins they are astounded. For instance, I have been asked, “do you have timed showers?”, or I’ve heard “you have to hang your clothes to dry them”, or “you guys don’t have AC or heating”. People assume that sustainable living is burdensome. So when I tell them that this is not the case, that we can take showers as long as we want and we have drying machines and we have AC, they are surprised. Sustainability does not have to be a steadfast anti-21^st-century technology lifestyle; it is simply the commitment to doing everything in your mental, physical, and technological capability to live a lifestyle in which future generations will not be at risk. The idea is to help the future livelihood of the human population, and you get to decide how worthy a cause that is worth fighting for. So while none of these previously mentioned assumptions are necessary, they are all still available. It is up to all of us to live a sustainable life and I hope that we cabin-livers will show the rest of the Furman community that sustainable living is not as awful as they make it out to be.

-Celia C