My Environmental Footprint

I originally had to calculate my environmental footprint in an English 1AH class at RCC in Fall of 2010. When I realized how much I consumed I was horrified, because I always thought I was much "greener" than others. The second time around, I am not so surprised because I realize even though I try very hard, I would have to change my whole lifestyle to really make any sort of a difference. I can cut out many things, but there are some things I just can't and won't give up. Like the gas I use to get to school. Cutting out that gas would mean I couldn't get an education, and I'm not willing to give up this. Calculating my environmental footprint this time around I found that

-If everyone lived like me we'd need 3.4 planet Earths to support my activity.
-My footprint breaks down into mostly services I use.
-To support my lifestyle it takes 15.2 global acres of Earth's productive area or 13.9tons of carbon dioxide. These global acres are broken down into mainly energy land.

The good thing about the environmental footprint calculator is that it doesn't leave you feeling guilty. Instead you have options to look at how you can reduce your footprint by going back to different question from the quiz. Also you can look at the "explore scenarios" which shows you how you can change your life to live more "green".

For me, personally, I have actually increased my environmental footprint after I started college.  When I was in high school, I did most of the cooking for my family because I just loved to cook and wanted to practice. Since I went to a charter school, I did most of my homework online and had more time to stay at home since I didn't have seven hours of classes per day. I tried to use no canned goods or products without preservatives. Instead of using canned kidney beans, I'd buy dry kidney beans from the health market/store and cook them for hours. I made many things from scratch like bread.  This was actually for the most part so much cheaper or at least the same price for many things like the kidney beans. It of course took much more time to cook, but I had the time so this lifestyle was possible. We never really ate out. I even became a vegetarian and then a vegan.
When I started RCC, I think I really started living the "life". My life suddenly became so competitive(getting classes) and I had to spend all my time studying. Because of this I ate out more, used pre-made food, and too many preservatives. The grocery bill went up and so did my weight. After I started dating my boyfriend, I started eating meat again. I really miss being able to cook the way I used to and I miss having the time to exercise and gym like I used to(in high school I used to work out like crazy). Due to this great change my impact has increased greatly, but there isn't really anything I can do about it. I just can't find the time. My family doesn't really have the time either, so we are all sort of stuck.

I looked the many options of reducing my global footprint, but the lifestyle I live is pretty much already reduced as far as I think I can go. I took less classes this semester, and have more time to cook and I am trying to reduce my Starbucks consumption. I don't really go out because I'm always studying and I even take short showers. I want to continue to try and consume less.