Powering Our Earth Anonymous

"Come quick!” At six-years old, I struggle to Velcro my shoes on as I peer out the window to see where my father had gone. Eyes twinkling, he showed me a bright, green caterpillar chewing on a leaf, high in the branches. Hand in hand, we explored the beauty of nature...through our backyard. As my first time seeing the world through my own eyes and exploring the great unknown, a part of me had fallen in love. Excitedly, I pulled on my father’s sleeve. “Let’s explore Africa next—I want to see lions!”

However, the years passed, my opportunities to explore the wilderness like I had as a child slowly dwindled, but I still wanted to play my part. After learning more about the environment in school, I decided that I alone, as a eleven-year old, was going to make a difference. My parents used to chuckle at my obsession with the environment, fidgeting with the thermostat, recycling clearly non-recyclable items, and protesting cutting down trees, but even they grew weary. I wasn’t becoming a savior for the environment at all; I was becoming a headache for my parents.

Believing my lack of education and experience to be the root of my problem, I decided to learn more by taking AP Environmental Science in sophomore year. Encouraging us to...