A quick hop on the internet to search what it is that sustainability means throws back at my screen five hundred and eighty-two million results, this is an approximate number of course, but it does make it come across as a topic entirely too broad to approach, too many academic articles and dictionary entries and journals and NGO websites. Attempts to narrow the search by adding extra keywords only led me to variations on how to stay green and planet friendly. This is not to say that I am against the type of articles that suggest changing over to a reusable bottle or solid shampoo; any sort of effort to help with the conservation of the environment is good and worth recognizing but I do feel that in a world that is becoming more and more complex, it is important to go beyond the surface particularly when it comes to topics like traveling and studying abroad. We must understand that sustainability extends beyond the impact we have on nature; one of its core elements is the capacity to meet our current needs without affecting those of the future generations.
When it comes to the conversation around traveling, whether it is on social media or face-to-face, it mostly centers around how it is that we were changed by the experience, how we have become a new person with an entirely new perspective on life but we ofter forget that this goes both ways and we also leave a mark. I have seen my city, Guadalajara, be changed by a growing number of tourists and remote workers but I have also been visited other countries and done a semester abroad; this has led me to understand that every place has unique needs and because of this the ways to be sustainable will vary. In Guadalajara because of the distances, it is not entirely possible to bike everywhere so instead my friends will carpool whenever possible but during my semester in Valencia the distances made it possible to walk to and from university, this also allowed me to get to know the neighborhood where I was living which led to meeting new people and local shops that I might have missed had I simply driven everywhere.
To me it is particularly important to get to know the place where I live because I have seen how my city has been slowly gentrified, small restaurants closing and apartment buildings being advertised in a foreign currency; the sustainable development goals that concern responsible consumption and sustainable communities become harder and harder to achieve. The next semester I will be studying at Cardiff and rather than rent a car and buy from chain stores, I want to really live there; let myself be changed and whether it is through local organizations or simply by recycling, I want to leave a good mark.
