Despite what I had hoped, once I calculated my carbon footprint, I was extremely disappointed in my results. It wasn't terrible, and was actually below average, but I cannot deny the small, internal hope that it would be a bit lower.
Personally, my family tries very hard to be 'green', per say; countless times, I've been yelled at (In the most encouraging and helpful way possible) for leaving a light on in my room. My mom is very passionate about being as eco-friendly as possible by saving water, watching our electricity bill like a hawk, recycling everything she can, and even composting the majority of our food waste. (Although, she isn't the most dedicated to this task.) Our only downfall is our transportation footprint. I don't live an extraordinarily large distance away from my school (About six or seven miles), but my family loves travel and exploration to the point that it makes up over half of our carbon footprint alone. Just this summer, my mom, aunt, and little cousin went on a driving trip around the south-western part of America-- Almost four thousand miles! T his entire trip took place while driving in a car that gets barely 14.9 miles per gallon. In the past year, as well, we've taken nine flights altogether and four round trips, all of them being up to somewhere in Canada. (And the one Cancun trip)

I'm hoping that this year, I can encourage my family to lower our carbon emissions by convincing them to not go on so many flights. There's nothing wrong with chill summers and fewer hours in the sky riding giant metal aircrafts that inflict quite a lot of damage on one's carbon footprint, right?