When I was little I wanted to be a Vet, I loved animals. One day, when I was 10 years old, I refused to eat a hamburger for dinner, because in my little mind it didn’t make sense to help save a cow and then have one for dinner. After pursing the Veterinarian’s path for years, I had a change of heart. At University, I started to look at the bigger picture on our planet.
I cared that there were people going hungry at night, when I was throwing away food. It felt so unjust. So as a 21 year old, I wanted to do something about it. I moved my focus to International Development. I wanted to help people so they could help themselves. The more this journey unraveled it became about those that don’t have a voice…. the dis-empowered. I wanted to make sure their voice was heard, whoever they were.
What clicked for me a few years later was that without a healthy planet supporting people and animals… we really have nothing. No one can be empowered if our Earth can no longer provide for us, and with the way we use the planet, it can’t sustain us.
What I realised was that our Planet has the most dis-empowered and unheard voice of all… It made so much sense to me, we need to be taking care of our planet so that we can have healthy, happy people and animals.
I vowed that I need to strive to make sure this Planet can thrive, both now and into the future for the next generation. For my future children.
I went on to study a degree in Sustainable Development, this opened my eyes to all of the issues facing people and our environment today. It was depressing. So little of it focused on solutions or actions we could take.
After a few years of working for Non-Profit environmental organisations and then working overseas in Tanzania working on a Sanitation and Hygiene project, I came back to one thing.
I kept pushing for everyone else to change, and I wasn’t necessarily living by example. So it came back to me… and what I can do day to day.
There is always more I can be doing, but I take it one step at a time… even one choice at a time. This gives me hope.
Sharing this and inspiring easy ways to live lighter on the Earth makes me feel like we can all being doing our bit and the end result is a massive shift of how we live and care for this planet, and all the species that live on it.
So this journey that I started is now about all the small and easy steps we can take, and the mindset shift that comes with them. I will continue to follow this journey and now document and share what I am learning.
xx
Dear Jamie, more power to you!! I wish you success in your endeavours. My children thank you and their future children thank you!!
Inspiring to others – first steps are hard but essential.