Life Outside the Box

I grew up in the quintessential upper middle class family. My dad worked a white collar job, my mom stayed home. I lived in a lovely suburban home, went to great schools, wanted for nothing. I had (have) parents who love and support me. I still do. I am not saying this to be a braggart. I am just saying that, even when you have a great upbringing, a great life, you can still suffer from depression. and anxiety. And- with that is the guilt. Well, my life is great. Why do I feel this way? And feeling bad for feeling that way.

But that is really not the point of this blog post. The point is while I dreamt of a fairy tale wedding (and in my own way, my $500 wedding was a fairy tale), and a mini van and a cookie cutter home in the suburbs, something in my heart has always longed for more. Or maybe not more. But different. My idea of the world was shattered sometime in the early 2000's. when I was a college student and discovered the real affects of our affluent lifestyle- climate change, global warming, waste disposal, etc. And I knew I had found where my heart's passion is. I am at heart and environmentalist. But it is easy to sit here from my cushy house and say I care about the environment. But what am I really going to do about it? How am I going to take action?

For a while I did take action- I was active. I ran a blog about reducing my waste. I made positive environmental choices. But then I had a second child. I became complacent. I caved to the pressure of fitting in with the suburban consumer lifestyle. I am not proud. However, still in my heart I knew this was not where I wanted to be.

This blog has always been about my journey, and here I am, once again, back on my journey. Offline my family has made many strides; we are debt free (thank you Dave Ramsey!), we have stayed in our 1000 sq ft carriage house (no huge mortgage for us!) but I (we) still have a long way to go. Blogging helps keep me accountable. I hope to connect with like minded people along the way, but even if no one ever reads it, I know that I have felt accountable in my journey. If you are a zero waste, environmentalist, minimalist, simple living aficionado; I would love to meet you.

Please stop and say hello!
Katie