As I became older and finally graduated from school, I realized that I just wanted to travel to different places in the world.
I decided to study abroad and I got into some very interesting classes in various locations. My parents fully supported me because they thought I could easily expand my horizons this way by learning about different cultures and even pick up on the different languages. Well, most of the places I went to provided me with a humbling experience. I learned how to survive without having a cooling system. The place I was studying had a more mild climate than what I was used to, but I honestly had never gone through the hot season without using an A/C system before. When I first asked why there wasn’t an A/C system anywhere I went, people laughed at me. It was explained to me that they didn’t really use cooling systems in those parts, and this was something that was very interesting to me. It became shocking to me when I learned that a majority of the energy usage in America comes from people using their HVAC systems. That’s a crazy thing to think about, yet here in some of these other countries, they don’t waste nearly as much electricity! When I eventually came back home, I was a changed person. I suddenly felt I didn’t need to use the A/C in the hot season and I just used fans like how I did when I studied abroad. Everybody thinks I’m nuts now, but I save a huge amount of energy!