Journal, 9/17 Environmental Cleanup on TCU Campus

I had an early start to my morning on Sunday 9/17, or at least earlier than my usual lazy weekend day.  I am in the Honors College Community Service, and today we partnered with the TCU Environmental Club for a campus cleanup.  On the bright morning, we met at the Founder’s statue, and then from 10am-12pm, we took our gloves and trash bags and scoured campus for trash.  We started near the library due to having met at the Founder’s statue nearby, and found many purple and sparkly confetti pieces in the green plant life on the ground.  It was a goodly amount of confetti that we procured from the plants, and much of it was well-tucked away in the greenery.  I believe it was from some recent event of Greek Life induction, or perhaps last year’s graduation, because that is what I recall usually has much fanfare and loose decorations.  TCU campus is beautiful, but it is at times like these that I wish students were more mindful of their surroundings and cleaned up after themselves, because we are all a part of the TCU community and have a duty to keep it in good shape.

Along the side of the library, myself and one other environmental custodian of the day worked on the bushy growth.  We were surprised to discover a small snake.  I would like to assume that it is a baby garter snake, so thankfully it was harmless.  We picked it up for a closer look, and made sure it got safely back into its habitat afterwards.  I noticed that the twigs and assorted plant life whence the snake had come appeared similar to the shape and color of the creature, which provides it natural camouflage.  I noted other wildlife, such as what I believe was a newt or gecko at the trash can, and some snail shells in the brush.  I also realized that the land we cleaned up belongs not only to the residents of TCU but the local wildlife as well, and so it is good what we volunteered to do.

On the other side of campus, I was with that one fellow student when we came across a dumpster.  We discovered that some trash had fallen out of the container, mostly light and wind-friendly pieces of plastic, paper, and tissue.  It was not pleasant to pick up certain things such as the wet plastic bag, but armed with gloves and a trash bag, it was our responsibility to make sure disposables were put in the right place.  Much of our trash was found scattered around this location.

The whole group met up at the Founder’s statue at the end of the the event so we could move as a group to a dumpster to carefully dispose of our trash bags.  Collectively, we had picked up a sizeable amount of garbage, which makes me happy about the good impact we made on campus.  I was displeased by some of the trash I found, namely, about 10 cigarettes, and multiple fast food containers.  As a non-smoking campus, I would hope that, at least, the tobacco products would be disposed of in an appropriate place.  It is not a good look for TCU to have cigarettes on the walkways, but at least, even though I’m still not a fan of it, the cigarettes were tucked away in the grassy ground.  Mostly out of sight, but it won’t be out of my mind.  Also, one could assume that much of the fast food containers that were left askew on campus were purchased by students, and since we have so many trash cans across TCU, I wish we could all show some more respect by taking the simple step of throwing garbage away properly.

However, as the President of the environmental club noted, we made a nice impact today, not only physically but mentally, because many people saw us picking up trash around campus, which brings more awareness to the cause we work towards.  After my experience in the early morning outdoors all around campus, I feel more connected with TCU as a beautiful space to live and study in, with the natural sights such as snakes and snails and newts, and I feel more connected to myself as I am more mindful of the impact people have on the world.

Photo: Squirrel surveying the world from a branch

 

Photo: FrogHenge in bright beautiful weather

 

Photo: Flowers in the Afternoon at TCU

Photo: TCU Commons, Green Nature with Fountain