Aspiration
In my future, I hope that I can use what I have learned in school, in combination with my own strengths and skills, to make meaningful change in the world. I study Environmental Science and English Literature. It is my great aspiration that I will be able to unify these worlds by communicating science in a way that is interesting, relevant and true. In my dream world future I use my understanding of environmental systems to attack multiple levers of meaningful social change.
Intervention
My plan is to graduate from UBC and apply for many jobs. I don’t know what jobs yet but once I get them I will work as hard as I can to live by my values. I will tell my values to my coworkers and friends and we will all unite, and we will stand up for what is right.
Reflection
We did lots of interesting things in this course. The biggest takeaway is that sustainability issues are really complicated! There is no single smoking gun–every issue is more nuanced than you might expect. A question that lingers with me is where can a student like me realistically have the most impact. Is it working in an NGO? Or for a corporation? Or should I go back to school to pursue policy and law? There are so many avenues to take, so maybe the right one is just the one that surfaces for each person.
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Sometimes it can be daunting to study big problems–after this tough semester, I need to take a page out of Into the Wild and spend some time in nature:
“No longer to be poisoned by civilization [s]he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.”
–Christopher McCandless
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