1. Why did I happen to get interested in Environment?

‘Saving the Earth’, ‘Research for sustainability’, and ‘Becoming a global activist’ are my current goals of my life. Many people do live with goals in their mind and some just live as it flows. For me, I have lived with a life-long tendency to keep asking myself, why do I live? What am I live for? And, what do I have to do?

These questions were at the peak when I was in Wels, Austria for an exchange student, the time when I had enough time to look upon my entire life. I was completely lost at that time. Even though, I chose chemistry as a major in the beginning of the sophomore, I was not sure whether it perfectly fits with me and what do I have to do after graduation.

(Yes,, The wind and sun shine,, so calm place. Nothing much to do except thinking 😊 )

But, then when I came back to my country, having same unsolved questions in mind, I happened to read a famous book, ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari. He explained the long history of mankind, mainly focusing on how human came to stand where it stands today. I think I was quite shocked to know that we have been exploited almost everything on Earth: how we have decimated the diversity of animals and plants and alienated ourselves from nature. We have developed the way to cultivate plants and store them, but the notion of the propriety led to the gaps and hatreds among us. We have developed clocks and engines, but unfortunately, these didn’t presage the endless bondage to work, success and further development. It is true that I became a little skeptical about mankind..

However, regardless of my preference, I am the member of human society and have long been living happily with my family in a warm apartment, eating delicious meals and watching fun TV shows. Actually, it is also true that I was not brave enough to abandon all the earthly materials and live in the deep forest. (Long story short) Then, I just changed my mind to do something that could prevent further disasters. Firstly, I got to think that ‘saving the earth’ is our responsibility, and secondly, that I have to do something bigger, something that could impact our world with my knowledge and privileges given to me. After this shift in my mind, I got motivated to help the marginalized people in our society and to study chemistry for bring changes to world.

------> Next post will be about ‘Why I am interested in chemistry’.

#environment #savetheearth #chemistry #student #anecdote