Single Vital Use Plastics

I would agree that the majority of bottled waters are pretty terrible and pointless, but...

People aren't really getting it with bottled water.  Drinking water varies widely in flavor and not all of it tastes pleasant, and you don't need to be a connoisseur to tell the difference.  The answer isn't simply to filter it.  Mineral content, pH level, and even silica content all play a significant part in creating a pleasing drinking water.  I have had bottled waters that I spit out due to some weird combo of sodium and sulfur content.  My tap water has a chlorine odor and overall harshness.  I've had well water that tasted like foot.  So it's folly to assume I should just get a reusable container and fill it up at any tap I see.  I can find any puddle after a rain storm and filter the water through a sock until it runs clear and is drinkable, but that doesn't put it on par with every other bottled option available.

My favorite water has a naturally soft (but not softened) mouth feel, and extremely smooth taste with none of the harshness that usually hits the back of your throat with most waters.  As a result of all this, the finish comes off as slightly sweet.  It's amazing.  It stands apart.  I'm always asking people to try it and one person had the best review yet - "There's no 'thing'."  It was my favorite review because I knew immediately the reviewer was referring to that back-of-the-throat harshness.

The person drinking a single-use plastic bottle of soda gets a pass ostensibly because soda doesn't (yet) come out of the tap, but we criticize the single-use water drinker because we assume all drinking water tastes pretty much the same.   It doesn't, and I don't need your lecture about how I'm being thoughtlessly wasteful.

Paramecium

I went to junior high school in a place called Slackerville U.S.A.  Most kids there just got through the day.  I don't remember much trying going on.  We'd hear stories about the big kids in high school who were able to leave during their free periods, and we couldn't wait for that.  The goal was to get yourself two free periods in a row, ideally periods one and two.  That meant seniors who had cars either had the pleasure of sleeping in and showing up at about 10AM (except on the days you might decide to skip that 3rd period class too.)  Some might also aspire to getting free periods on either side of lunch so you could take off for a couple hours each day.  I don't remember much talk about wanting the last two periods of the day free.  I don't think leaving school grounds was actually allowed but I know there was zero enforcement.

I never made it to Slackerville High.  We moved to another state and I started high school there.  What I found out, rather quickly, is that kids there cared.  

Kid: "What foreign language are you taking?"
Me: "I'm not taking a foreign language."
Kid: "Oh - I guess you don't want to go to college then."
Me: "What?"

Back then, a foreign language was a requirement for most colleges.  Never met any kid from Slackerville who knew that.  

Because I finished junior high in my other state, I entered high school in my new state as a sophomore.  I strolled into Biology class on Day One and took a seat in the back.  The bell rang and the teacher laid it out in a very stern tone that we could expect homework every night, frequent quizzes, plenty of tests, and he would be calling on us in class to answer questions about the previous night's homework.

I immediately made an appointment to replace the class.  I showed up the next day, not having done any of the homework and OF COURSE the teacher called on me to answer a question.  I told him I didn't do the homework.  He asked, rather sternly, why not.  I told him it was because I was going to drop the class.  He said, "Oh.  Okay" and moved on.  I replaced Biology with Life Science.  I eventually learned to care, but it was not like flipping a switch.

That was 1982.  Today I gave that biology teacher a ride to and from a doctor's appointment because I had the opportunity to be helpful and this is the last line of the story.