Emma Randolph

Low Energy Enthusiasts

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
217 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

3.0

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

2.0

zero-waste meals

consumed

Emma's actions

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Eat Mindfully

I will eat all of my meals without distractions, e.g., phone, computer, TV, or newspaper.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 3 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Electricity

Calculate the carbon footprint of my household

I will calculate the carbon emissions associated with my household and consider how different lifestyle choices could reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on the environment.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Zero-waste Cooking

Reduced Food Waste

I will cook 1 meal(s) with zero-waste each day

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Industry

Recycle Everything I Can

Recycling

Contamination prevents what is recyclable from being recycled. I will research and recycle all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my community, making sure to not contaminate recyclables with non-recyclables.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Buildings

Learn about the Legacy of Redlining

Multiple Solutions

I will spend at least 40 minutes learning about the legacy of redlining and how city planning and environmental justice issues are interconnected.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Try Carpooling

Carpooling

I will commute by carpool 30 mile(s) per day and avoid sending up to (___) lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

REFLECTION QUESTION
Buildings

How does city planning and design relate to equity and climate change?
Emma Randolph 5/23/2021 2:48 PM
After taking a health disparities class last year and reading the articles provided by project drawdown, it was disheartening to learn about how city planning relates to equity and climate change. More specifically, I remember learning that low income communities are displaced in areas where there is more pollution or more mercury in the food they eat for example, but I was unaware that trees and plants contribute to cooling of cities specifically. It was also interesting to learn that there is more greenery in high income neighborhoods, and that's not by accident. I was also disgusted to learn that cities decided how to allocate money to improve different neighborhoods based on how "risky" they were, and to do that they accounted for how black the neighborhood was. Although cities in general are hotter, green spaces and concrete aren't distributed evenly across an urban area, contributing to more heat related illnesses in low income communities. After reading on how the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was passed, I would think that it would be better, but now, 50 years later, there is still ramifications from the redlining that occurred in the 1930s.

Honestly, reading and learning about these policies has made me extremely overwhelmed and almost useless because this was implemented around 90 years ago and is STILL affecting these people. What can I do to help? I wish the articles provided gave more information. Obviously being informed about this issue has prompted me to research and learn more about it and see what I can do to help provide environmental justice.

Read More
- Amanda Adolfo 5/23/2021 11:21 PM
  Hi Emma! Thanks for sharing this insight. I learned similar things when I did the green gentrification challenge too. I think it's pretty absurd that when the city or developers "upgrade" a low-income, dilapidated neighborhood by installing sustainable infrastructure like a park or green space, it causes the housing prices in the area to go up. It's not fair that sustainability has to have a price associated with it because everyone deserves to live in a safe, healthy environment-- not just people who can afford it.
  
  I learned from one of my climate actions "Population Health and Health Equity Spring 2021 Speaker Series" an alarming paradox regarding the climate problem. The speaker, Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo explained that Black and Latino Americans face a "Pollution Burden" which basically means that they experience more exposure to air pollution than what their consumption is. White Americans have a "Pollution advantage" which means that they experience less air pollution exposure than is caused by their consumption. These inequities are growing as climate change worsens. I think the only way to address these climate inequities is to also address upstream causes such as racial inequity and economic inequity. That requires a whole lot of people power and leaders that will support these causes, but I don't think it's impossible. It will require major systemic changes too, since racial inequity impacts all facets of life.
  
  I think awareness and education are the first step to tackling climate and environmental injustice. Knowing about the problem gives basis for caring about the problem and wanting to find solutions or ways to help. For example, you talked about redlining, which is something that I learned one time in high school during my AP US History class, but we never expanded on that topic and how it affects BIPOC today. Luckily, I opened my eyes and ears and learned more about the ramifications of redlining and even about redlining in my own community. These topics are important to understand why people are facing disparities in climate change impacts.
  
  Read More
- Emma Randolph 5/23/2021 2:54 PM
  After reading another article, I've learned that I can help by advocating for fully funding the Housing Choice Voucher program, which would help families pay the cost of renting housing on the open market.
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Electricity

After you determined your carbon footprint, did you see what different choices you can make in order to reduce it?
Emma Randolph 5/11/2021 9:16 PM
Today, I calculated the carbon footprint of my household, which consists of me and five other roommates. Although two of us are vegan, another two are pescatarian, and another two try to eat meat less often, it was surprising to find that our carbon emission from our household was still somehow above the 4 tons of carbon dioxide, which is the average monthly output of a US household. In reflecting on this, I had a long and hard conversation with my roommates trying to figure out what we can do differently. While we have been currently working on collecting the recycling products to take to a recycling center, that is not accounted for in the carbon fottprint calculator on the ecochallenge website. Similarly, this calculator took into account or zipcode and assumed that that's how much CO2 we produce based on that.

However, when I looked into a more comprehensive carbon emission calculator on the EPA website, I found that we were unable to answer the questions fully since we live in University apartments, we do not know how much we pay for gas or lighting since these rates are included in our rent. However, the epa website's questions did shed more light into how we can reduce our emissions. For example, recently, especially the past few weeks, we have been using the A/C a lot and I've noticed that sometimes my roomates will deadbolt our main door or balcony door--which makes more energy be used to cool the air since the hot air from outside is coming in. The EPA website also recommended reducing the amount of miles we travel in our cars, and we discussed this further, like we don't absolutely need to drive to the grocery store, it'll probably be better for us physically to walk there anyway. One thing I did like about the EPA calculator was that it did take into account the things we recycle, but because I did not know our estimated cost of how much gas and electricity we use because it all comes together in our rent, I was unable to compare the results from the EPA calculator and the ecochallenge calculator, Either way though, since the ecochallenge calculator estimated that our household produces more than the average household, I have realized that my roommates
and I do need to make a change, and that will start with closing the doors and windows if we choose to use the air conditioner. Obviously, we will also try our best to not use the air conditioner and cool ourselves off by other means as well. We will also unplug all of our devices from the wall because that will be unnecessary electricity being used.

Read More
- Alice Ma 5/15/2021 11:59 PM
  Hi Emma! I loved reading about you and your roommates' discussion of how to lower your carbon footprints! I calculated both my and my boyfriend’s households' carbon footprints, and both of us were also above the average of 4 tons of carbon dioxide. Something I noticed about my own carbon footprint was the fact that in a typical year, my family would fly more often than the average household. My dad typically does international business trips a few times a year, and I’m not local to LA so going home during the school year means taking a flight. I think these are a huge inflator for my total household carbon footprint.
  
  Something I did find super interesting was that I used two different websites to calculate my carbon footprint and one gave me a result that put me above the American average, while a second gave me a result that was much, much lower than the American average. You even mentioned the EPA calculator and how you and your roommates weren’t able to answer some of the questions fully. I wonder how does each website performs these calculations, and what data are they using to cause these discrepancies in results? I definitely had to guesstimate some of the answers to the questions asked by the calculators, so I’m wondering what the margin of error for these calculators would be. Regardless, I am definitely in need of making some changes in my lifestyle to reduce my carbon footprint.
  
  I really like that you brought up unplugging appliances and devices that aren’t being used. I am definitely guilty of leaving chargers plugged into the wall even while I’m not actively charging a device. I did some research and there are actually “smart power strips” that can be used to prevent appliances and chargers from siphoning off electricity even when they aren’t being used. One of the biggest reasons why I don’t unplug appliances is that I forget but, if I plug them all into the same power strip, I would only have to flip the switch on that strip off and I would be saving so much more electricity! That’s something I’d never even thought of before, and definitely something I’m going to invest in! Absolutely loved reading your response and hope we can both make changes to reduce our carbon footprints!
  
  Read More
Emma Randolph 4/24/2021 10:47 PM
Today, as a further extension of the challenge I have undertaken under the "food, agriculture, and land use" to reduce my food waste while cooking, I used the rest of my hummus that otherwise would have expired on Monday. To do so, I made a hummus pasta utilizing the rest of my hummus, pasta I've had in my pantry for a few weeks now, and leftover vegetables that I have just been eating as snacks here and there this past week. The recipe was quite simple and I encourage everyone to try it as an easy vegan meal! The hummus serves to make a creamy-like sauce and you can add whatever veggies you want/ have in your fridge--honestly anything can go with hummus in my opinion. In this pasta, I fried onions and garlic first, then added kale, mini bell peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatoes. After stir frying these veggies, I added the rest of my hummus and a little bit of pasta water and stirred to make a creamy sauce. The more hummus you add, the creamier it will be. After making this sauce, I stirred in my pasta and served it with nutritional yeast and red chili flakes and it was very yummy! Similar to an article posted by the zero-waste chef (linked in the drawdown challenge), "Cutting my waste has forced me to become more creative and resourceful (and save time and money)" as well! Instead of letting my spinach go to waste and wilt in a day, I threw it in my pasta to rescue it, something I would not normally do if the spinach looked even slightly off to me. In the future, I hope to continue to be resoruceful and creative in my cooking and continue to save vegetable scraps and even attempt to grow my own veggies to reduce the amount of plastic and paper I consume. For example, I plan on using the plastic bag that hold my mini bell peppers to hold my vegetable scraps as they accumulate until I can make veggie broth. I also plan on going to the Westwood Farmer's market this Thursday to check on pricing and to see if I can buy mini bell pepper without the plastic bag (as sold in Trader Joe's). I have attached a photo of the mini bell pepper bag as well as the pasta I made today!

Read More
- CHARLOTTE CHAN 5/22/2021 5:14 PM
  Your pasta looks great, Emma! I love hummus too, so I'll definitely give this a go if I ever find myself with some extra hummus.
  
  It's really awesome that you're finding creative solutions to generating less waste. Honestly kudos to you for making such an effort to make a difference. I'm inspired to be a little more experimental and creative with my food.
  
  Ever since I've started living in the apartments, I've realized how hard it is to cook for one person (myself), and not waste food. It's just really hard to buy portions of food that are just enough so that I have enough food to eat but I also don't have to throw out anything. Something that really helps for me is just to make more trips to the store. This helps reduce waste, helps me save money, and helps me eat more fresh food rather than packaged food. Especially since I walk to the store, this has been a gamechanger because carrying a small amount of food back home is so much easier than trying to lug a giant bag of groceries home (people who walk around in Westwood will understand :')
  
  Oh, and by the way, spinach also does great in the freezer. So if you ever find yourself with too much spinach again, you can just freeze it for a later time. I also found this really great recipe for using extra veggies too: https://zerowastechef.com/2020/10/14/soup/
  
  The way you've repurposed the packaging makes me smile because it really reminds me of my grandpa. He is a total pro at generating zero-waste and never throws away anything he might be able to reuse for something else. I'm definitely reminded to be a little bit more conscious about my food packaging!
  
  Read More
- Neha Joshi 4/28/2021 12:17 PM
  Hi Emma and Abby,
  Emma, your pasta looks delicious! I’m very inspired by your innovative recipe! Like Abby said, I’ve never thought to use hummus as a base for pasta dishes but think it would be a great addition. I always have a tub of hummus on hand and so this would be super easy to do! I love how you added a ton of vegetables to your pasta dish. I always have a lot of produce in my fridge but have trouble finding ways to incorporate several different ones in a single meal. Putting them all in pasta is a quick and easy way to get tons of great nutrients in.
  
  Like you Abby, I also live with 4 other people and definitely lose track of where some of my food items and produce are. Sometimes they get shoved in the back of the fridge and by the time I find them, they’ve gone bad. I will definitely make an effort to be more conscious of where I am storing my food so I can make sure this doesn’t happen again. I’ve found meal prep to be a great way of reducing waste in my life. I spent my Sundays cooking 4-5 different vegetables and tofu and storing them in large tupperware. I look up vegan recipes online and most of them are actually very quick and easy to make! Though meal prep requires some extra time and effort, it is so worth it! These meals usually last me the rest of the week! I find that I usually become very busy as the week progresses and having ready made meals is very convenient. I don’t have to worry or think about cooking during the weekdays and this eases a lot of my stress. Given that it’s midterm season currently, meal prep has been a lifesaver. I also don’t end up ordering from Postmates and Ubereats as often as I used to. This further reduces the amount of plastic I end up with since most meals come in plastic packaging. Also, since cooked vegetables last longer in the fridge than fresh ones, I’ve found that this greatly reduces food waste in my apartment. I’m hoping that I can keep up with my meal prep Sundays!
  
  Read More
- Abigail Urbina 4/26/2021 4:19 PM
  Hi Emma,
  
  That pasta looks absolutely delicious! At first glance, I would not have thought that the sauce was made from hummus. I originally thought it was some olive oil-based sauce. I would have never thought of using hummus as a base for a pasta sauce, so I am thoroughly impressed that you were able to come up with this innovative recipe. Similar to you, I am trying to cook more vegan/meatless meals every week. Everyday, I face the dilemma of asking myself, “What can I cook today? Do I even have the ingredients for what I want to cook?” However, I fail to realize that the issue is not so much that I don’t have enough ingredients to make a meal, but rather, the issue is that I fail to come up with recipes that make use of the ingredients I already have. I often let so many basic produce items go to waste because I forget I even purchased them or because I strictly follow many online recipes that do not call for the ingredients I have already purchased. However, you have inspired me to be more resourceful with what is in my kitchen and refrigerator! I have realized that I can be more creative with my meals, and I do not have to strictly follow online recipes. I would like to cut down on my food product waste because I do not want my grocery budget to have been spent inefficiently. Because I live with 5 other girls, what usually happens is that our refrigerator is so full, and I often forget about the items I leave in there. When I remember about those products and find them, they are usually expired and no longer good for consumption. Whenever this happens, I usually get discouraged about cooking for the day, and I typically end up ordering food from Postmates. However, I would like to keep track of the items I buy at the grocery store by writing down a list of what I purchase; this way, I will not forget about the items I have purchased and will remember to use them up. I will cross out the products as I finish them. Last week, I actually did exactly what you did: I incorporated some about-to-expire spinach into some pasta I made for dinner! Instead of ordering takeout, I decided to use whatever marinara sauce I had, and I mixed it with some alfredo sauce to make a pink pasta sauce. I boiled some fusilli, tossed it in the pink sauce, and added some spinach and red pepper flakes to it. I think the spinach also added a really pretty green color to contrast with the pink sauce. I definitely want to incorporate more vegetables and whole foods into my meals, so I will make it a habit to thoroughly search my refrigerator to find any ingredients I can make use of before I resort to ordering takeout. I really liked your idea of saving vegetable scraps to eventually make vegetable broth from them. My roommates sometimes make chicken broth by throwing old chicken bones into our Instant Pot, so I will definitely share this homemade vegetable broth idea with them! I know that my vegetarian roommate would definitely love this because she makes soup every week.
  
  Your post has definitely inspired me to be more conscious of my grocery spending and cooking habits. I will definitely try to be more resourceful with my ingredients – just like you were with this hummus pasta! After reading this, I want to research more on how food waste affects climate change. Keep up the great work, Emma.
  
  Read More
- Emma Randolph 4/24/2021 10:47 PM
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

In North America, up to 65% of food waste happens at the consumer level. Chef Steven Satterfield advocates for utilizing every part of a vegetable. How can you incorporate using an entire vegetable, including the skins, tops, and stalks during your next meal prep?
Emma Randolph 4/23/2021 9:36 PM
It is very hard for me to cook in a zero waste- way, but after reading on the articles and tips on how to cook and maintain a kitchen with zero waste, I am much more confident in my ability to do so. While I usually try to avoid buying more fruits or veggies than I plan on consuming in the week, there have been a few times where I have opened a tub of hummus or pasta sauce, seen mold, and had to throw it away. I usually would move on and not think of the repercussions of my actions. Something that the "22 ways to reduce food waste and easy zero waste recipes" article said that influenced the way I now view buying perishable food is that any piece of food that I end up throwing away is money being thrown away. As soon as I read that, I went to my fridge and checked the expiration date of the hummus that I bought about a week ago. The best by date is Monday April 26, 2021. Since there is still a good amount of hummus left, I plan on cooking hummus pasta tomorrow for dinner and will post a picture then! If I had not checked the expiration date, it is possible that mold would develop and that would be both food and money in the trash.

In addition to checking my fridge, I also checked my pantry for food I already own before going grocery shopping. To try even more to lower food waste, I ordered produce off of "imperfect foods." "Imperfect Foods" is a company that sells produce that otherwise would be thrown away by grocery stores and ships them to customers. While the box it is shipped in does contribute to the recycling issue, I felt that buying the produce was worth it since my roommates and I all bought our produce from this website and only one box was used. Imperfect foods also helps to provide farmers financial security as they purchase their surplus or "imperfect" produce at a fair price. I also plan on taking this box to the recycling center after we gather a lot of glass and cans. In regards to using an entire vegetable, including the skins tops and stalks, I plan on saving vegetable scraps to make a vegetable broth instead of buying vegetable broth in the store--which usually comes in a non-recyclable container. Today, I made a salad (I forgot to take a picture) but I saved the bell
pepper and onion scraps to use in the future when I accumulate more scraps. I plan on keeping this in the freezer until I boil everything.

Read More
- Neha Joshi 4/28/2021 11:52 AM
  Hi Emma and Katherine!
  I also try to avoid wasting groceries and feel awful when I have to. I agree that thinking about the finances is a very real, tangible way of seeing ‘waste’. We can’t always picture what throwing away moldy vegetables or a tub of hummus can do to the environment, but we can instantly see how much money we’re wasting. Like you Emma, I also check my pantry before grocery shopping. I’ve also found that making a succinct list of what I need before going to the store is very helpful. That way, I’m not tempted to buy random things that I may not be able to eat before it goes bad. I also feel more organized and my grocery trips are considerably shorter as a result.
  
  Also, Imperfect Foods sounds amazing! I did some research into the company and think it’s a great way to get groceries. Reviewers say the groceries are of excellent quality and taste the same as the produce in grocery stores. The only difference is that they are slightly less aesthetically appealing, which honestly doesn’t bother me at all! I checked out the prices and it seems like you can get 25 pounds of produce for only $11-$27. Addressing Katherine’s question, I do think it is cheaper overall! I compared my receipts from Trader Joe’s and Ralphs and think a produce box from imperfect foods would be cheaper. Moreover, the company reports saving over 50 million pounds of food that would have otherwise been tossed! In their impact report they acknowledge that as their business has expanded, so has their carbon footprint. However, their carbon intensity (tons of carbon dioxide per $1/ revenue” has decreased as they find ways of making their company more sustainable. They also note that 25% of the emissions from the agricultural industry comes from producing food that is eventually wasted. Through their business, Imperfect Foods are able to reduce 20,663 tons of carbon dioxide! I’m so inspired by this company’s mission and will definitely be ordering from them this week! They appear to have a wide selection of fresh fruits and vegetables and I look forward to making more sustainable food choices.
  
  Read More
- Katherine Jordak 4/25/2021 9:35 PM
  Hi Emma! I actually have a really hard time letting food go bad in my fridge and having them go to waste. I just think of the money I spent buying it and how sad it is that I wasn't able to use all of it. However, I think a lot of people don't really care that they are tossing away so much food (and money) every week. People have a hard time processing how a weeks worth of food thrown away can impact on the environment, but they have no problem calculating how much food they are throwing away. Therefore, it might be a good way to convince people to be more cognizant of the food they are throwing away each week because they buy too much/ don't plan out meals well.
  
  Also, I am curious about the food saving tips. I watch this lady on youtube who is super cheap, and she saves money whenever she can and is raising like 6 children. She is wild. Anyway, she has a lot of good tips for saving food, and she has a video about all the types of food you can freeze (so they don't go bad as fast). The one that stood out to me the most was that she freezes her cheese. It is especially good with block cheese, and then you can grate it into your dish to warm it up.
  
  I have also seen several people on youtube talk about imperfect foods. Do you think it is actually cheaper than buying food at the grocery store. I have always been hesitant because I am usually shopping for one and do not need that much produce each week, but I haven't really looked into it.
  
  Read More
- Emma Randolph 4/23/2021 9:40 PM
  I forgot to add, but I hope to learn more about what vegetables/ vegetable scraps go together to make a good veggie broth and I also want to go to a farmer's market. I have not been to one since pre-covid and I do not remember what the price difference is, but if it is the same or less than the amount of money I spent on imperfect foods, I hope to incorporate shopping at farmer's markets more than grocery stores--where a lot of produce is in plastic for no reason and the food is older than what is available at a farmer's market.
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Industry

How could you incorporate other "R's" -- reduce, reuse, refuse, repair, repurpose, etc. -- into your lifestyle? How does considering implementing these "R's" make you feel?
Emma Randolph 4/14/2021 10:32 PM
I have decided to take on the challenge of researching and recycling all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my city, making sure to not contaminate recyclables with non-recyclables. While I do remember hearing vaguely about how recycling is a "scam" because very few people are educated on it, I did not realize the grave effects that have resulted. I, and I am sure many others, would often throw plastics away in recycling without giving a second thought on whether it was contaminated or not--I assumed that recyclable centers would clean it themselves. However, after reading the sources provided here on the problem with recyclable contamination, I have now learned that "contamination significantly increases the cost to process recyclables," which would subsequently lead to recyclable materials being thrown in a landfill even if people had the best intentions of recycling in the first place. What was interesting to me to learn (and quite sad) was that we have to leave plastic bags and thin plastic wrap out of our recycling because of its negative effects on recycling equipment (according to NPR). I also did not know that deodorant wasn't recyclable! I have now become much more frustrated with my usage of plastics knowing that it's not even able to be repurposed. I found the npr article to be incredibly insightful, motivating me to look into the closest recycling center to me. In order to motivate my roommates to also recycle whatever plastics are recyclable, I found the closest recycling center that offers money per plastic bottle or aluminum can and told them that we should save them to not only help with the contamination issue, but also get some money back in return that we can use towards other things (like investing in a mop rather than using the swiffer). We hope to collect as much as we can before going to Ponce Recycling Center. I hope that in practicing this every day, I become more cognizant of what I buy in the grocery store, hopefully only buying things in plastics that I know will be recycled. I hope that in collecting this bottles, cans, and other recyclables and then going to a recycling center I will be able to know firsthand what is recyclable in LA rather than simply reading about it in an article too. I have attached an image of what we have collected the past 3 weeks.

Read More
Emma Randolph 4/12/2021 12:29 PM
Why am I here? Similar to my peers, I also did not realize that English 100W would incorporate learning how to lead a more sustainable and resourceful lifestyle in addition to developing my own career path--I am immensely grateful for this though. I have also been interested in sustainability since high school, when I first watched "Cowspiracy" and stopped eating meat. Although I have been leading a vegan lifestyle for the past few years, I did not think to try and adjust my other patterns of living--as I often see convenience to override commitment. I hope through participating in project drawdown I will hold myself more accountable for other actions I partake in, such as being mindful while I'm eating, driving less, and more.

Living in Oxnard, I began to learn how to surf last year and have enjoyed going to the beach at least twice a week as well as hiking at least once a week as well. Because I enjoy partaking in outdoor activities, I want to be able to continue to do so as I age. Similar to Blake, my concern for the climate crisis was rooted in my love for nature and "getting away" from the city. Therefore, for the past few years I have mostly been concerned with maintaining a vegan diet as well as picking up trash wherever I saw it on a trail or beach I was at. I never thought to consider how my future career will also contribute or aid the climate crisis--which is why I am grateful that this class will force me to take into account how I can help with the climate crisis while also being a physician. After reading "Uninhabitable Earth" last week and discussing it in class, I am now interested in pursuing a public health and MD degree so I can contribute to both precautionary and reactive measures taken to help the health of people, which may or not be due to the climate changing.

I've included a picture of my friend Annie and I at the Ojai river-- a hike I often go on when I want peace of mind, as I love dipping in the water after a long hike. This picture was taken in early 2020, before the pandemic. This trail in particular was closed to non-locals after May 2020 because of the amount of trash that would be left around the river, which would not only hurt the wildlife there but it was also an eyesore. Most LA folk would come up to Ventura trails because at the time the LA trails were closed--and these people would leave their trash! I was thankful that the city made locals show their IDs before going on the trail because most locals I felt respected the land as well. Even so, now the trail is open to everyone and I do still see broken glass, beer cans, or even plastic bags left there and I try to do my best to pick up what I can. As I continue to walk through life, I hope to continue doing as much as I can when doing activities I enjoy, whether that be in my career, hiking, or at the beach. As a physician with a public health degree, I hope to be more involved in health policy and on a smaller scale seeing what I can do to influence hospital policy on single use plastic for example.

Read More