Early on, my mom told me that if I came back inside for dinner with sap on my hands and dirt on my knees, it meant I had a good day. I spent much of my time outside in nature – from playing in the field behind my house to taking annual camping trips to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was a bit of a shy kid, but when I was outside running around with the trees, my imagination helped me find my voice, cheesy as it sounds.
I am writer today because of my imagination as a kid. There were worlds beyond the trees, and stories floating with the clouds. The Earth is, and always has been, a kind of tangible magic.
As the dialogue surrounding climate change and sustainability continues to expand, I am increasingly passionate about environmental advocacy. Through the environmental classes I have taken at the University of Michigan, I understand that the clock is ticking. We have to do better than the generations that came before and reduce our ecological footprint so that there can be generations to follow. Though this realization is important, it is heavy. I often find myself discouraged and overwhelmed with the responsibility of inheritance. This is the question I took with my into this project: what does it mean to inherit the Earth?
I thought of the generation growing up with this responsibility and expectation. I wanted to approach environmental advocacy in a child-friendly way – exploring education while also presenting questions that do not have a clean answer. I wanted to explore my own messy relationship with this question in a way that felt accessible, engaging, and most importantly, uplifting. Through this project, it was important for me to focus on encouraging those who are trying to be good global citizens. This does not mean pretending that it is easy, but it means that you are not alone. There are always others – whether they are human or nature.
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