“Life with Lenora” is a weekly series capturing the experiences and occasional musings of our opinion editor.
At first glance, the last extracurricular activity you’d guess was in my pre-college repertoire was achieving the Eagle Scout rank. I endlessly watch makeup tutorials, am oriented toward feminine fashion and love to dance (casually, that is).
While I have always loved nature and enjoyed exercise to an extent, I do not exactly meet the ruggedly boyish archetype modeled in the Scout handbook.
One of my New Years’ resolutions this year, however, was to be more intentional about the principles I learned back in my scouting days: namely, ‘leaving no trace,’ being less wasteful and so on.
Recently, I have been attempting to pick up sewing. I’ve really leaned on second-hand and consignment shops for my wardrobe in recent years. Often, I’d stumble across a cute pair of jeans and realize that they were too wide for my waist or long for my legs — many times both.
My journey really began, however, when my grandmother gave me my own sewing machine. Now, I can customize any item in my closet at my creative whim. I use “can” hyperbolically here. I’m only a beginner.
Nevertheless, I’m committing to being more resourceful in my everyday life. Last Halloween, I made a Mr. Peanut bodice fully out of slightly deflated balloons leftover from a party, scraps of cardboard, homemade papier-mache and plenty of paint stored in my closet. This semester I am dedicated to upping my ante: environmentally-minded crafts aficionado or former Boy Scout? Maybe a bit of both.
Instead of throwing old scraps of fabric away, discarding clothes I have outgrown or spending $30 on a new skirt, I aspire to ‘leave no trace’. Not just to make Greta Thunberg proud, pacify my personal climate concerns, or channel my project runway energy, but to make my life a little more personal and a lot less wasteful.
Lenora Collier is a sophomore international studies major from Hattiesburg, Miss.
