ABOUT ME
Welcome to my journey! I guess most of you are wondering who I am & what I intend to do on this journey? Well, let’s start from the beginning:
My name is Laura Van De Woestyne. I’m a Belgian 27 year old mermaid, working at a positive impact communication agency. I enjoy scouts, hot yoga, running, scrolling around on social media, etc. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Back to the story!
During my semester abroad in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (so much love), I realised how much I appreciated nature and all the beautiful creatures that come with it. During my travels through Vietnam and Cambodia I was confronted with a lot of trash. Like seriously, A LOT. I think that’s the first time it really hit me: how is it possible people treat our planet this way? You can’t just throw things away and expect them to disappear. That’s what really got me thinking..
After my return back home, I started to read more and more interesting articles concerning environmental issues, but it was only when I saw Cowspiracy and Before the Flood that I realised how bad it was. (If you haven’t seen either of these documentaries: why are you still reading this?! Get watching!) That was a turning point for me. I promised myself I would stop eating meat all together and that I would do whatever I could to lower my ecological footprint (more about that later, coming up in one of my blog posts). But a couple of weeks went by, and I caved. I tried too hard to be too radical. And let’s admit, we’re all just human beings, it’s normal to have cravings and everyone has weak spots.. Everyone makes "mistakes" (that's a loaded word, sorry about that) , and that’s okay. I realised I had tried to go from everything to nothing, way too fast. I tried to avoid every piece of plastic I could, but that just wasn’t possible & I kept punishing myself for it.
A zero-waste lifestyle isn’t something that happens overnight. It needs time. You need time. To adapt. At first, it’s a mindset, but eventually it becomes a habit and before you know it, it sneaks up on you in your daily life. But I’m not here to convince you to radically adopt a zero-waste lifestyle, but to enlighten you with the things I found useful during my (still ongoing) journey. Just small little things I've adapted in my life one step at a time. I hope they will be just as useful to you!
To conclude, I just want to be clear that I am far (very very far) from a zero-waste lifestyle (still got a couple of years to go, to be honest.). You can’t always do the “right” thing, but I feel like it’s the effort and the willpower that counts. I happen to love buying clothes, and a lot of them come from huge fast fashion companies. It’s something I’m not proud of, but it’s my weak spot. And I’m working on it. (Trust me, it’s only one of my many flaws). It’s all a process and I just want to encourage everyone that every little step of the way is a step in the right direction, even though it might take you a while to find your way. I hope you’ll join me on my journey to find mine.
Enjoy,
From the desert with love xoxo