Introduction

I started this blog with the intention of keeping my thoughts, and hopefully maybe someone will read them and it will help them. Someone like me, who knows there needs to be a change but unsure where to start.

I guess I should give my background. My name is Lisa, and I am a 29 year old content female, living in an apartment with my fiance and cat. I live a very good life, firmly in the middle class and completely on the grid. I love to read, play video games, and go out to dinner with my fiance. We are annual passholders to DisneyWorld and go at least once a month.

About a year ago, I started realizing that the more I read on the news, the more discontent I was. A small voice in my head kept saying, this isn't right. Can't anyone see that needs to be stopped? The pollution of our oceans and air, the rising price of gas (both economically and environmentally) amidst the scorn of budding alternative energy sources. The sheer greed of American society as a whole. We have become such a consumer driven nation that we have lost all ability to take care of ourselves. But what could I, one person, do to stop this?

Nothing.

I can't control what the rest of the nation does. I can't even control what my cat does. But I can control what I do. While I am only one person, I control where I spend my money and what labels I give my money to. I swore off Wal-mart and vowed to eat only organic local grown food, grow my own garden, and started researching the prepper lifestyle of self-sufficiency.

That lasted all of a week. The reality soon set in: Wal-mart is popular for a reason, namely being the cheapest place to buy food. The cost of a dozen eggs is about a dollar, but a dozen organic free-range eggs are about $4. Making my own food from actually meats and veggies instead of pre-prepared boxes and bags took a lot more energy and time than I thought. Most of these ideas and suggestions I got were geared towards people who had a house, and a little bit of land. I live in a one bedroom apartment with no storage and very little sunlight. I got very discouraged, and went back to my consumer lifestyle. But that voice never went away. I kept reading up on prepping, self sufficiency, and how to disconnect myself from the cycle of consumerism. As much as you may think you can just switch to self-sufficiency, for your intents are strong and good and pure and surely they will be your guiding force, you can't. Or at least, I can't. It's a daily decision that you have to consciously make. And this is my recording of that struggle. So if you want to follow, please do. I hope I can help, or at the very least entertain you.