You know you fall into the category of a 'longtime activist' when:
1. You have Greenpeace postcards, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection schools guide and Born Free Foundation junior zoochecker kits from the early '90s.
2. Half of the t-shirts in your collection exist to champion a cause.
3. Your party playlist contains songs like "The Fish Cheer", "This Land Is Your Land", "Power to the People", "Man In The Mirror", "Cool Change", "Hijau", "Revolution" and "Battle of the Beanfield".
4. You go to the beach ostensibly on holiday and still end up doing beach cleanups, marine animal rescues, data collection and advocacy and awareness programmes.
5. You read something in the papers that infuriates you and immediately start drafting a Letter to the Editor in your head.
6. Half the books in your bookcase have the words "...Ethics of...", "Rethinking", "Conscious", "Concerned" or "Smart Consumer" somewhere in the title. When you were under 20 years old, you had the entire collection of Earthworks books listing 50 / 100 / 101 easy ways to save the Planet.
7. Your weekends and holidays are entirely made up of volunteer events and charitable causes.
8. You know how to organise a fundraiser, destroy a wire snare and give a talk to a roomful of university students but not how to change channels on your parents' cable TV.
9. Over half the friends on your Facebook list are people you met through volunteering and campaigning.
10. From the time you learned to read, you've been looking out for Mobius loops, Leaping Bunnies, USDA Organic logos and Fair Trade logos on the labels of every product you pick up.
11. You remember Julia Butterfly Hill's tree-sit as clearly as though it were yesterday.
12. Acronyms such as GMO, CSPO, 3Rs, TNR, CITES, RAMSAR, DANIDA and CO2 PPM somehow always make their way into your daily conversations.
13. Your idea of Chick-Lit is Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", Jane Goodall's "In the Shadow of Man", Marilyn French's "The War Against Women" and Karen Dawn's "Thanking The Monkey".
14. You feel you are entitled to have a say on draft Bills before they get tabled in Parliament.
15. You've ever planted a tree for someone on his/her birthday.
16. You'd attend a lot more campaigns, conferences and volunteer events if it weren't for the carbon guilt.
17. You remember all your rescued animals' vaccination appointments but not your significant other's birthday.
18. Most of the local animal shelters, environmental organisations and community action groups have your number on speed dial.
19. You've ever wanted to just "quit all this shit" and live off the grid in a solar-powered, self-sufficient house in the countryside and grow vegetables.
20. You know the only reason you've lasted this long is because you stay away from all the politics and drama.
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