Sent on by
Twyla Neely-Streit
Send Your Own Message

To my potential children,

I’m eighteen right now. I’m irresponsible and argumentative and not the person who might someday create you just yet; but I’m getting there. I’m finishing my first year at college and as I’m sure I will have told you, it is quite a time in a person’s life. If you had asked me even a few months ago what my goals were, I would have laughed. Now I have a legitimate answer to that question—or the beginnings of one. I’m an environmental science major and as of now I am very certain that I will remain on this path. Who knows, maybe by the time you read this I’ll be a bonafide adult! An engineer or a scientist, an architect or an advocate? Who could say? But I hope it will be something that has made you proud, and I hope that it will be something that has made the Earth proud. There are no opinions I care about more.

I’ll be honest, honey, it could all turn out that way, but as for now I don’t have high hopes for the future. Currently Trump is president, sea levels are rising, and so are temperatures. There is little positivity, little compassion, little understanding. This is a time in which climate change equates guilt, anger, conflict, politics; things that as your mother I wish you never had to encounter, though I know you will. Because I can imagine a future in which these things continue and you are reading this letter from under your smog mask or inside your oxygenated apartment on the 50th floor in a super-city. A future in which people remain scared and no one takes responsibility. But these thoughts make me feel gross inside and this letter is not meant to be about fear or darkness. Because here I am, in my present, trying my best to take some responsibility. So maybe things will be better some day!

I can also picture you reading this under the shade of a birch tree at Honeyrock or in my childhood home. Breathing in clean air, touching plants, loving a dog just like I do. I will choose to hope for the second. I chose to hope that we will be there together! That young, lazy people like myself will get our acts together and become the innovators that the world needs. Wish me lucky honey. I will see you in a month for my grandson’s graduation. I am so proud of all of you, and love you with my entire being.

Share on:
 
Send Your Own Message

More Messages to the Future

 

Dear Tomorrow,

I feel optimistic for you, tomorrow. I can feel a shift happening already.

 

Dear next generation,

Please don’t wait to see the adverse effects instead adopt that river, stream, lake or ocean to make the world a better place.

 

Dear Potential Future Kiddo,

To think that my choices of sustainable commuting, eating a plant based diet, and working on our City’s zero waste program likely pale in comparison to the impact of not having a baby is nothing short of devastating.  Does it make me a bad environmentalist to honor my maternal instincts?

 

Aos meus sobrinhos queridos, Ana Laura, Luis Carlos e Helloísa,

Talvez eu não esteja viva para ver alguma mudança, mas espero que vocês vejam e tenham um mundo melhor em 2050. Plantei um ipê rosa e outro amarelo, que eles estejam florindo até 2050.

 

Dear tomorrow,

If there’s one thing young people have learned while quarantining, it’s that Gen Z holds so much power and is capable of a lot more than we think. We’ve created a community that has united us all and started to bring about change for the good of our futures. Now, with the help of Gen Z (and of course, people of all ages), we have the power to save our home, the Earth.

 

Dear Tristan,

I am doing this to protect you, the food, water, air and biodiversity of a country that I love.

 

Dear Tomorrow,

My climate promise is to reduce electricity at home. I will turn off the TV and lights when I’m not in the room.

 

Salutations to whoever may be reading this,

I promise to do my part. I promise to be the change I want to see in the world, and I hope that you, reader, will do the same.

 

Fe,

As one push of a button can set a spinner in motion, so too can the actions of one in creating a world that allows you to thrive, to giggle, to love.

 

Dear tomorrow,

Unfortunately, our selfishness and excessive greed have closed our eyes to the well-being of the planet, and it has suffered the consequences.

 

To My Future Self,

This lead me to my final project, which focused on reforming the education system to incorporate sustainability classes into the current curriculum.

 

Dear loved ones in the future,

Even if it pains me to imagine how things are back home in Puerto Rico at the moment, I know things will flourish again. The land will heal, but we need to help it.

View All Messages

Send Your Own Message