In The Shower

Did you know that the average person spends 5 to 10 minutes showering?  That may not seem like much but when considering the amount of water used during that amount of time, you could be using between 25 to 60 gallons of water per shower! Now, lets think about this on a larger scale. There are about 2,488 students at Lafayette (according to Wikipedia) but lets just say 2,500. If every student on campus takes a 5 to 10 minute shower each day, Lafayette uses between 62,500-150,00 gallons of water/day on showers!!! ALERT THE MEDIA! CALL IN THE SPECIAL FORCES! (Although my math is only guesstimation, it’s still a scary reality). Can you imagine that much water being used per day on our campus ?!? This amount does not even take into account the amount of water used when we flush, wash our hand, brush our teeth, cook, or the endless amounts of water spent almost weekly on watering the grass around campus!

I have to admit, 5-10 minutes is not my average time range. On a good day 10 minutes seems to be the minimum amount of time I would shower for.  Now I know this might seem selfish and wasteful but what can I say, I could give all kinds of excuses as to why I take such long showers but the bottom line is, I like it! After a long day of classes, activities and such,, showering is soothing. AHHHH! I can feel it now, a warm shower after a rough day, how refreshing! (I know some people can definitely relate.)Having admitted my showering problem, I believe it is my first step to changing!

I have decided that putting a time cap on my shower length (7 minute goal), might not only do the environment some good but, would also allow me to use those extra minutes on something a little more important….like class assignments. As I consider the challenges I might face as I try to reduce my showering time over the next few weeks it seems as though the grotesque weather we continue to face in October might be one of my hardest problems. A few other problems include, temptation to continue showering and  I don’t usually tend to carry a watch to shower with me. Solution: fifty cent waterproof Ebay watch! and I guess self control.

The world has only a finite supply of water and the sooner we as individuals begin on protecting and conserving that water, the better futures we assure for ourselves. Unlike the character in the picture above, I do not think that society will be missing out on much of shower discoveries we make.