Plastic Gags

When we stop and realize how many decisions were made for us that we just took at face value, it becomes painfully clear: most of us haven’t been in control of our own lives.

Take plastic bags, for example.

When we were kids, we went to the store with our families and were handed our groceries in plastic bags. We didn’t think anything of it. We didn’t invent disposable plastic. We didn’t decide it was worth mass-producing despite knowing it could never organically return to the earth like carbon material. We weren’t the ones who marketed it to businesses as “disposable,” using a word that made it sound harmless; as if you could just toss it and it would magically disappear.

But that word, that choice, shaped entire generations. Billions of people were convinced to go along with it. And here’s the kicker: the people who profited from that reckless decision won’t be the ones around to face the full physical and environmental cost of their choice. We and our children will be cleaning up a mess that we didn't even create. Had it been up to our generation, we probably would've invented some organic material, or stitched our own cute tote bags from fabric. That's what I've been doing and probably many more of our generation too.

This isn’t just about plastic bags. It’s about waking up and realizing how many systems, habits, and “normal” parts of life were decided long before we had a say. Now we’re the ones who have to deal with the consequences. And the worst part is, a lot of these decisions were made with absolutely zero consideration of our generation. 

The system can't keep us down if we continue to rise above it.