Forest Man

I am 23 years old, and for as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to change the world.  Whether it be being a zoologist, or marine biologist, traveling to the distance oceans to save the dolphins; or going to the Amazon to save the trees; I have always dreamed of bigger things.
 It wasn’t until I got older that my view of the world around me became less textbook, and more of a real worldview.  The problems that I figured were so big, were really just a dime a dozen.  It wasn’t just the Amazon getting destroyed, the Great Barrier Reef being polluted, or black rhinos being poached.  I started becoming desensitized to the problems that were happening around the globe.  When I think of the question: “what change is needed in the world that only I can make?” I struggled with a response.  What kind of change is necessary? What can I really do to help? Where does the need end? 

I have always tried to believe in the good of people, to believe they care, but after years and years of watching the world turn its back on the one resource that gives us life, it’s hard to keep up hope.  As my mom would say, it’s like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket.  When I read the second part of this question, what is the change that only I can make, I likened it to voting.  The first time I ever voted, I remember having that “one vote can make all the difference” mentality. Then come to find out, your vote is just a piece of paper in the grand scheme of things.  You don’t really pick the winner, your county is either red or blue, then your state is red or blue, then you have an electoral college.  I grew up with the idea that my changes for the environment would be a grand domino effect.  My little changes in my usage of Styrofoam, the longevity of my showers, how much I recycle would eventually work their way all the way to the top.  But where is the top? What is the end?  

After watching Forest Man, my idea of change was challenged.  The idea that the end was neigh, wasn’t actually the case.  Jadav Payeng didn’t wake up every morning feeling defeated about what he cared about.  He has devoted the majority of his life replanting a forest.  He gave me hope that trying really isn’t in vain.  He said in Forest Man that the whole economic state of his country, could be changed in just a few short years if people started to care.  Which made me realize, that the real change starts with me, near me.  It’s easier to focus on the things that affects me locally, because I can really get my feet wet with those issues.  Instead of reading about far off places, and someday hoping to get there, I can see actual change like Jadav does every single day when he devotes his time to planting trees.  He says it the best, humans are the ones that need to be protected from, because really the environment can regrow itself.  We are just so dependent on destroying it for our own gain, which we won’t care until it’s gone.