I can’t remember my first memory of environmentalism or being cognizant that the earth is finite, a beautiful sphere in need of tender loving care from us irascible humans. I do however remember recycling cans at our local grocery store when I was in the eighth grade. A boy in my grade saw me there in front of the machines and said hi to me like it was nothing. But then he proceeded on the school bus the next morning, to try and make fun of me for putting aluminum cans in a machine and getting 5 cents back a can. Apparently that was contemptable.

I held my own and told him in no uncertain terms to F@&$ off and that I was recycling and helping the planet which is more than I can say for his mere existence. Don’t worry, this wasn’t a harsh retort and this wasn’t the first time we tussled. This kid was annoying and got on everyone’s nerves.

As the years went on, the environment and its encompassing problems stayed in my periphery but molded in my mind significantly my senior year in high school when I purposely took a global science class. Suddenly I was aware of the plight of sea otters, and trash in our oceans, and the melting ice caps. It was so informative and I felt this need to do something about it, so when I went to college, I majored in Environmental Studies.

But then the air went out of my balloon because you see friends, I am not a science person. I have found that people are either in the English/History camp or the Math/Sciences camp. Sometimes there is overlap and those people are my heroes. Seriously. But my brain, as much as I care about over-fishing in our oceans, is strictly an Oxford Dictionary girl. I need my English and History books that take me to faraway places and times and I am not talking about the dinosaur era.

So I changed my major, but never stopped caring about Mother Earth. I knew how to reuse foil and other tidbits thanks to my depression-era grandmother. I wear out clothes until there are holes in them. I try to be energy efficient.

I try to do the best I can but the news and the state of the world leaves me sad and frustrated. The Amazon is burning. Lead is still made in toys even though we have laws against that sort of thing from happening. Birds and fish are still eating plastic at overwhelming rates and dying, their tummies full of non-digestible plastic $^!{. The person occupying the White House has gutted the EPA and all other environmental agencies designed to protect our part of the world and us humans that are occupying these 50 states. Lead is still in communities’ drinking water.

It is so disheartening and at times, it is more than I can carry, because I am an empath and I FEEL ALL THE THINGS ALL OF THE TIME.

But we as stewards of our beautiful planet can’t get discouraged even though we want to. We can’t lose heart even though it feels like ours is breaking. We can’t give up even though there is no finish line in sight.

We have to continue to do the work. Support causes that support the functioning of our planet. Reuse. Reduce. Think about what we are leaving for future generations. We can’t walk away. We can’t bury our head in the sand.

The earth needs us.