Dear Amber,

I hope you have helped change the world. You may be old now, shorter than you were when you wrote this message, and much more knowledgeable through a lifetime of experiences.

It’s crazy here, the pandemic is still on the rise (remember that?), climate change continues to take a toll on socio-ecological systems, and here I am just sitting at home worrying about what is next to come and if I can face it head on. I wish there was a way to have reversed all of this before it got worse. Zoonotic diseases due to encroachment in habitats, trafficking wildlife and endangered species, empty and broken promises from governments and large corporations who know their impact yet continue to benefit from everyone else’s suffering. It is craaaazy town over here. The gap between the “rich” and the “poor” is still here and continues to grow day by day, deaths increase due to starvation, lack of healthcare, and negligence, yet in other parts of the world there’s an in flux of food, food waste, and free healthcare. There’s always someone being sacrificed for the benefit of another, and it is often the exploited marginalized communities. On the positive, movements have truly begun to arise and take shape, instilling and protesting peacefully for change. Change on social inequalities, I hope you have remained a part of it all.

I hope you have reached your dreams and goals of helping to conserve species and habitats in danger of human activity and further degradation. I also hope you were able to continue studies and be a good ally to Indigenous communities, fighting for and with them for collaboration in environmental and social issues! It will be a long journey, and hard, but that shouldn’t stop anyone even you! So I hope you’ve had the chance to do and fight for whatever you are passionate about. I got you, I’ll get you there and I hope I did. We got this!