Reflection

Reflection

In brainstorming for and imagining this piece, I wanted to create something that would express the anxiety, grief, and feeling of being lost that youth often experience because of the climate crisis. I have been very involved with climate activism since I was about 11 years old, starting off with protests and moving into the political sphere with the Climate Hero I dedicated this piece to, and though it has been a very important outlet for me to express my climate anxiety, it has also been stressful and overwhelming at times. I think, and my Climate Hero helped remind me that in all forms of climate activism it is very important to reconnect with nature and the beautiful world for which we are fighting. In this piece, I wanted to express my feelings as well as an imagining of Mother Earth and show the grief of a planet whose inhabitants are destroying her and aren’t remembering to connect. My climate teacher, Nancy Metzger-Carter, has been instrumental in including youth voices in politics and ensuring that we have pathways to direct our activism. Nancy has empowered me in my fight for climate justice, but has also taught me invaluable lessons in caring for myself and my mission while doing activism work. I don’t want to let Nancy down, by burning out and deprioritizing nature and myself, and I don’t want to let the Earth down by letting our planet be destroyed.