08 May 2010

Trees for Textbooks

So what happens when an almost 30-year-old decides to go back to school? 
 
She grabs her mommy for moral support and they spend a day in St. Louis buying textbooks, getting a parking permit and student ID, drive to seedy (read: scary) parts of the city for the obligatory nursing school fingerprinting and background checks and have some fabulous Mexican food for lunch. 
 
This is what ONE SEMESTER worth of nursing textbooks looks like: 
 

I still have three books yet to get, but I'm getting them from one of my favorite places: Chegg.com.
 
Let's hear it for renting by the semester! With free return shipping!
 
The best part of renting textbooks from Chegg is that they let you know how many trees you are saving by not contributing to the reproduction of paper products - and you get to pick where your trees are planted. They ask:

Where would you like your tree planted?
 
Then you get a map of the world with a couple choices that include a brief history lesson.
 
Guatemala - For years Guatemala has been a victim of deforestation and slash-and-burn farming. Jaguars, ocelots, scarlet macaws, and howler monkeys make their home in the country's tropical forests, which serve as a refuge for rare and endangered species. The main threats to Guatemala's tropical forests are improper agricultural practices, natural disasters and large-scale development projects.
 
Lake Tahoe - In 2007 the Angora Fires destroyed more than 250 structures and burned approximately 2,700 acres of National Forest System land around Lake Tahoe. The American ReLeaf project is working to remedy this damage.
 
CameroonOver 50% of Cameroonians depend on the forest directly or indirectly for their livelihoods. The forest is home to endemic species, many of which are endangered, including the Mount Cameroon francolin, the African forest elephant, and the timber species. In recent years, however, there has been significant habitat loss and fragmentation as a result of subsistence and commercial farming. 
 
Without even thinking, I immediately chose Guatemala. After spending a month in Panama back during my SBU days, I've been in love with Central America and it's people ever since. I didn't really read through the other choices...until a light went off in my head. Um, yeah. M's uncle and his family lives in Cameroon as career missionaries. I know that. I just prayed for them today. And yet I completely blanked out when I saw that as a choice for the trees. Oops. Well, there are still two more semesters of books I'll need. They'll totally get their trees. 
 
After submitting my choice, I got this message from Chegg: 
 
Congratulations! Your trees will be planted in Guatemala through the American Forests Global ReLeaf program.
 
At least there is some good (that, and I saved $141.38 by renting) that will come from me having to haul 300 lbs of textbooks around on my back.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wow, chegg.com is a site I need to pass on to some people that I know! I still have my old textbooks (not the important ones, the political science ones) that I couldn't sale back sitting around my house.

Yay to the adventure of going back to school. Nursing is fun. My mommy and sister-in-law are nurses. My mom has all of her books, looks like a library at her house. (You may want to buy some of those books to refer back to for later!)