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When I first told my friends that I was living in the Eco Cottage (which my cabin mates and I lovingly refer to as the Cabbage), I continuously received responses like, “But you’re not a hippie.” As I told more and more people about where I was living, it became apparent that the majority of the student body has a very limited understanding of the Greenbelt community. I often found myself explaining what I thought to be known facts, such as the DH uses fresh produce from the Furman Farm or that Furman even has a farm for that matter, to those who asked about my experience in the Greenbelt. So I thought I would dedicate this first blog post to some of the common misconceptions I was asked about:
- “Don’t y’all have timed showers?”
- No, we do not have limited shower access. While Dr. Dripps, our residential advisor and teacher, strongly encourages us all to aim for a five minute shower, most of us simply try to cut our normal shower time in half.
- “Does your electricity cut off at night?”
- However, we do use solar panels and skylights so that we are more energy efficient. Also, we have a refrigerator full of food so that would be really bad.
- “Don’t you have to be a sustainability major to live there?”
- My cabin is filled with people who have different academic interests, and all of us come from varying backgrounds of sustainability. Aside from Celia, the only sustainability major in my cabin (who quickly became the go-to for all questions and concerns), most of my cabin has relatively basic knowledge of sustainability. The most important quality which we all share, is the willingness to learn more.
Every week I learn more and more about sustainability, and I hope that this blog post and the others to come will help clarify and shed light on what it actually means to live in the Greenbelt community.
Felicity Williams