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Nam Nguyen
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Nam Nguyen

I would like to start with the question of every high school student about to graduate: what will I do after this? I don't know, I'm not quite sure at that time. I just know I was hugging my mom at the backseat of my mom's motorbike. Back then, I was just a little boy seeing the world as a kid. I don't know the why of many things, including why people are working so damn hard to make money. And my parents are also working hard year by year to help me spend most time at the desk doing homework, while my parents are taking their freetime.

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Since then, I feel kind of deserted from the world and music is my truly savior. I kind of traveling around the big and vast sky through those good old song, and through a small window that can look up at the sky. I do feel connected with the stories I heard through those songs and also "We are the world" from Michael Jackson. I love the choir singing, it is so powerful, so mesmerizing. I feel like I can be in a room full of love. And that is the moment a young boy discover the "what is going on" with the world around him. I feel the world is facing some issues, environment is one of them. And gradually, I feel helpless. That is when a seed in my brain tells me I want to do something. And back to the moment when I was hugging my mom at the backseat of my mom's motorbike, I see so much trash on the streets, and I decide to learn at whatever school that has "Environment " in its name. That is how it started all of my ups and downs.

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After finishing my graduate degree, I still see the problem going on and on, not only on the street, but it is something global. Every country faces that, and I keep wondering why I don't know so much about the environment, why the entire childhood I have no idea what is happening with the trash, I was just ... blank. That is when I decided to emerge myself into educational activities. The answer was slowly revealed. It's all relating, it's all connected. Then I started to change myself, my attitude and behavior. About the climate, I think it comes from my mind, the Homo Sapiens' mind actually. The way we think made us to this point, dealing with climate change.

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I just love how I can see the world through sustainability eyes, I just need food. Despite all of the fancy and temporary on the outside of a person, I can feel if their behavior is Earth friendly or not. My hometown used to have 4 distinguished seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And since climate change hit, the winter is not cold anymore. Like the Spiderman movie said: "With great power comes great responsibility." But for me, sometimes I just wanna quit, it is so dark now. I still remember there are the nights when I cannot sleep because my head just keeps telling me how much time the Earth becomes this way. The questions just kept coming and I got depressed as expected. For almost two years, my head keeps making my inner thought a mess. That is why I created a group for eco anxiety people like me to share their thoughts and to have a sense of belonging.

Youth Climate Stories

For now, I figure it out all by myself and my resilience is quite deeply rooted. My practice indeed saved me and my head is with me. My friend and my community are yearning for those practices a lot, from saving the water, refusing single use stuff to some more healing practice to show gratitude towards the Earth. I deeply feel connected. Anyone reading this can also find their community too. Just by telling what you need, what you are concerned about, then the vast universe will give you signals. The like minded always find each other. I did feel  

lonely in this long journey to be the change for the world I want to see, but this will go away when you find the community that helps you through.

I just want to sing a song, as a gift for you, my fellow Earthlings, to celebrate the wholehearted lovers of the Earth, a song call: what the world needs now is love, sweet love.

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In the journey to love the Earth, you are always my fellow. Love always be with you.

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