Day 7: Feeling a sense of community

On Tuesday this week I started my challenge of picking rubbish around my neighbourhood. One of the challenges I’ve been facing since we started ago is making time.

I’m normally good when it comes to prioritising and forming new habits. For instance, in recent weeks I’ve decided to start cycling to work since we began face-to-face teaching a few weeks ago and I considered this a relatively easy transition, perhaps because I know it’s quicker than taking public transport or the car. I’ve also developed a habit of bedtime by 21:00 and that normally works quite well. Perhaps because this is a new challenge and it involves an additional task, and takes time to complete, I’ve been thrown off by the fact that it’s another new habit to form and a new “thing” to add to my “to-do” list. I think I need to reframe this in my head though as something positive for the community and my personal involvement in the community. I know I’m not unique here and I can make excuses for not having enough time so I know I need to do better on this front in making time for my challenge and in setting priorities accordingly.

The challenge itself has been good however and I’ve managed to get outside once to clean the neighbourhood on a wet Tuesday evening. There’s always a sense of accomplishment in giving something back to the community and when I came home on Tuesday evening I genuinely felt a sense of being a part of a community, and that I was doing my little bit to help my community. However, given that the evenings are darker, colder and wetter, there are less people around than when I began weeding the neighbourhood during the summer. This means there are less opportunities for social interactions and that’s something I miss as I feel there is real value in engaging with people for what I’m trying to do. I’ve therefore decided to change the timing of my challenge and only pick rubbish during daylight hours when there are perhaps more people around. I’m hoping this might increase interactions or at least people might recognise and see rubbish around them and engage in conversation with me.

Personally, it’s important for me to take responsibility for changing my habits so I’ve been telling friends, colleagues and people I meet that I’m doing the challenge along with my students to create a sense of personal responsibility and ownership. Otherwise, I might fall off the wagon and not commit to it fully!

Looking forward to rubbish picking in daylight hours tomorrow to get a change of perspective and a sense of accomplishment.