Please Happy

This is a real conversation I had with a fellow masters student today during a break. I was talking to S about bringing mugs and using water bottles. B, sipping Gatorade, chimed in:

B: I drink three of these a day and I’m not sure what to do with them.
Me: [laughs.]
B: [doesn't laugh.]
Me: Wait, are you serious?
…

S: Recycling is getting really big in California.

Me: Wait, what? Whadda you mean “getting really big?” Isn’t already something everyone does?

B: Outside of big cities, no.

Me: Did you go to college?

B: Yeah, I went to college.

Me: Well, I’d recommend recycling that when you’re done. [Then, class started...]

B: We’ll see.

After class, I apologized for my emotional reaction. I told B I’d take the bottles off his hands every day if he means to throw them away. I apologized again, and said I was distraught to hear that an educated person didn’t participate in such a seemingly easy thing. That, if we, as now-academics don’t recycle, who will?

A good lesson in being mindful of my speech, being more graceful.

He said he just started recycling and also just started bringing his own bag to Trader Joe’s.

“That’s great,” I said. “What made you change?”

His answer: “Peer pressure.”