The True Story of an Eco Warrior : Earth Day Special Essay (2nd Prize Winner) by Sristi Sen, Grade VIII, Funlish Language School

 

Elaine was a lovely girl. She was pretty, well-educated and she was extremely polite. Well, one day, her school asked her to talk about her other life. So she began, “Life as an eco-warrior - It sure is interesting. When most people hear the word “eco -warrior” they think of people protesting out in the streets. Although that is true for some people, most of us are not like that. We are just nature lovers and we are aware of the harsh reality of the modern world. We are people who are trying to raise awareness about our deteriorating climate.

Let me tell you about my journey of becoming an eco-warrior and what I do now.

Ever since I was a child, I have been obsessed with nature. I always loved plants and everything to do with them. I always asked my mother to get me plants but she would always say “You are way too young” or “You won’t be able to take care of them” or “They are too expensive to maintain”. I slowly started losing hope but I still had a sliver of hope left. “Maybe someday” I used to think to myself. Well, last year my mom had enrolled me to tuition. She didn’t tell me anything. All the prior information I had was that it was an English tuition. At first, I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was a regular tuition. I couldn’t be more wrong. Turns out our teacher, Mrs. Swati Bakshi is an eco-warrior and she encouraged me to join my first collaboration. By then, all my love for plants was overridden by studies and other activities. So, I didn’t really care but once I joined, I realized that loving plants is good. She told me, “I have heard from your mother about your love for plants. That is why I asked you to join today’s collaboration. You see we need more people like you”. And slowly my love for plants resurfaced, now stronger than ever. I started joining more collaborations and one day Swati Ma’am told me “You know, you would make an excellent eco-warrior”. At that my eyes lit up. I had only heard about eco warriors and the great things they do. I had heard about the things they accomplished but I had never thought of becoming one.

I stuttered- “Really?”

“Yes of course. I have seen the work you do and your love for nature.”

“That would be an honour”

And with that I became a climate warrior. I made posters, presentations and even spoke live in front of many people to tell them about nature. I even went door to door collecting e-wastes with Swati Ma’am and my friends as a part of an e-waste project. Today, I joined a collaboration with Hulladek to celebrate Earth Day. It was very informative and interesting and I hope that it will inspire other people to save mother earth. It’s not like we can live without her so why hurt her? "She finished. The teachers were shocked. They didn’t realize that a child was capable of so much but Elaine proved them all wrong. Now all her friends call her “Elaine, the eco-warrior” and she wears that title with pride, knowing that she is fighting for the right cause.