My sister taught me how to litter like it was nothing and for a while I thought it wasn't a big deal, but one day I saw a dead pigeon on the sidewalk and in its mouth was a snickers wrapper. My mom told me that the bird probably choked and then she walked away but I cried about it for a week. I think in that moment I realized how impactful we are to our environment. I plan to study environmental science at my dream college Michigan State and it is something I am so passionate about. So many things in my life has motivated me to care for the things no one else does, to be the voice for the voiceless. Our planet can't speak up for itself and so many people take advantage of that but I want to bring awareness to that. I hope to minor in animal science and learn more about wildlife. I want to be a environmental scientist and learn more about our planet and how to properly coexist with our ecosystem without harming it. I want to be a wildlife vet as well and travel the world taking care of wild animals. I think it is so important to do everything in life with full passion and to be as genuine as possible. My heart goes out for our planet and I express my passion for my environment in all ways. I know I am a pretty passionate person maybe obnoxiously passionate but I never noticed others noticed me. When my mom got diagnosed with cancer I got really depressed, it was like all the sunshine disappeared because when I looked at the person I loved the most she was in immense pain. I went to school like it was routine and barely smiled. One day a girl I have never spoken to came up to me and said asked me if I was ok and for some reason that broke me and I cried right in the hallway. After I finished crying she said she was sorry for asking but that reason she asked is what changed my look at everything. She said she has never seen me not smile or laugh throughout the day and when she saw me she realized she missed me, even though we never spoke. I try to smile everyday and my laugh has never been so loud. I realized that life could be hard but you are truly never alone. My mom got better and beat cancer and that girl is now a good friend and I know this sounds like a lame movie script but life really is so unreal. So I am not obnoxious but instead passionate, and my love for things no one likes lead me to my dream job.

I believe the one of the primary causes of food waste in my community is portion control or lack of. The U.S is known for our obese rates being higher than most countries. The U.S is also known for our crazy portions, our smalls are usually other countries large in the food, but on a smaller scale my community has portion control issues. I am Hispanic so community is everything and so is parties, we have so many parties and people make so many dishes for just one night. Sometimes there is too much food and it goes to waste. Whole platters of rice sit in fridges for days until its trash day then they get cleaned out. This happens in many other communities and even public settings like buffets or hotpots, which are really popular right now. My mom calls it eating with your eyes and I can't think of a better way to describe it. We see so much food and go crazy, forgetting how much food we can actually eat. This happens a lot without anyone even realizing it. A step we can take to stopping can be adding an extra food fee. If there is leftover foods at buffets or hotpots people should be charged a certain price because what happens to that food is just so wasteful. Some hotpots have already applied similar rules and it is really affective. Another step we could take is to shrink our portions. As I said earlier we have crazy portions compared to other countries and it would not hurt our health either if we cut back. If fast foods and other food production places shrink portions then society would start adjusting to it and it can become our new norm. We do not need all the food we order and if society starts believing that then we can cut back on so much unused food. A third step could be meal prep. I know it seems like a lot of work but it can have so many benefits, prepping allows you to save time in your daily life and know what your going to eat. It also helps you only prepare what you need sometimes if we make food while we are hungry we will more than likely eat with our eyes. Portion controls is such a huge factor of food waste, not only in my community but other as well.