Better Late Than Never

Hello everyone,

This is Andrew Walicki and this is my first semester here at American University. I am at a Junior standing, however I have enough Community College credits to have an Undergraduate Degree....however one can only transfer 60 credits, sad to say. I have had a little problem with getting started with the blog but believe I have it rectified and am HAPPY that I can finally get with you all here on our blog now!

As I had said before, I am a Junior here at AU and still have to figure out if I will be going for a degree in International Studies, or in Spanish/Latin American studies. Either way, both my focus and desires, are in the Environment. Ever since I can remember, I have been deeply troubled and conscious of the issues that face our planet. I can recall being in one of my classes in the 4th grade, and really realizing that I wanted a career that dealt with environmental protection - or something along those lines.

I like to think that I do everything in my power to change the fate of the planet; by recycling, taking alternative transportation (walking, public transportation, bicycling, etc.), getting others involved with recycling, carpooling, and the list goes on. Yet, I eat a lot of meat, I have a car from the 70's that gets about 7 miles to the gallon, and constantly travel and eat out. However, as that article from Fish pointed out, one can't beat themselves up for not being a model citizen of this planet. We all do things that aren't "the best" for the planet, but it doesn't make us bad people, or people who don't care about the environment. I love my old car, and I love driving it...but I don't drive it every time I go out, and if I am with a lot of people, we all pile into it, instead of taking multiple cars with 2 or 3 to each vehicle. I make notice of how much I use, reuse, and recycle, and even cut down from there....but I'm not perfect, nor can I even strive to be.

I am taking this class because of my passion for the environment and because even the course title is what I'm all about - International Environmental Politics. As our friend Justice said earlier in one of his posts, I would love to be able to work with the environment and tie it together with politics. I would also love to do this on a global scale, though not opposed to doing local work too. We all know the state that our planet is in, yet we don't really ever hear about ways to truly change it, or how to better ourselves and everyone around. We only hear about the negatives (which there are a lot), but there definitely are ways to make positives, and that is what I am hoping to get out of this class, ultimately.

I look forward to this class and being with you in a group. We seem to have a lot already in common, and I really am looking forward to getting to know more about you all. Sorry for the late posts, but again - better late than never.