Some kids are good at sports and grow up to be professional athletes. Some kids are good at drawing and grow up to be artists. I, on the other hand, was neither. In my earlier years, I read a lot and waited for the days we would have science class. During those brief periods of wonder, I began to learn what humans were doing to the environment. It appalled me before I even knew what the word meant. Believe it or not, school actually helped me become the person I am today.  I believe that protecting the environment is the most critical issue facing the world today.
School projects have always been a touchy subject for me. I dislike poster making and have no interest any arts and crafts. So in second grade, when I was assigned to research about a zoo animal, I nearly dropped out of school. But, thankfully, my mom made me do most of the research for the project myself, so I quickly came to respect my assigned animal, the gray wolf. Through my extensive research, which was a Wikipedia article, I learned that gray wolves were nearly extinct due to over hunting and loss of habitat. In my presentation to the class, I had an entire section dedicated to what humans had done to gray wolf populations. While I was passionately delivering a hard hitting expose, the rest of my class was dozing in their desks. This failure didn’t stop me from becoming more and more interested in how humans impact the environment. 
The summer following my report on gray wolves, my world changed forever. I had fallen in love. Not with a person, but with the world. More specifically, Glacier National Park. I couldn’t get enough the mountains and the animals that I saw. During the year that preceded this trip, I had been introduced to the concept of global warming in school. I didn’t quite understand what it was, just that it was bad. When the park rangers explained that the glaciers in the park were melting faster than they could refreeze, I was terrified. I don’t want to live in a world where I couldn’t come back to the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. This trip made me see how big of an impact humans could have on the world. From that moment on, I decided that I was going to save the world. I wasn’t going to put on a cape and fight monsters, but I was going to make sure there was still beauty in the world for years to come.
Imagine this: an arena filled with thousands of teenagers awkwardly dancing in their too small seats and listening to semi motivational speakers. This gathering is called WeDay and celebrates making the world a better place by working together. I attended this glorified music festival in October thanks to my school’s National Honor Society.  At one point, a girl my age was called on stage to be recognized for her efforts in saving monarch butterflies in her hometown. I nearly ran onto the stage to let everyone know that I cared more about bees than she could ever care about stupid butterflies. About two years ago, I learned about that bees are dying off at an alarming rate. This may not seem like an important issue when you first think about it. But, like everything else, bees play a role in life, albeit somewhat removed. If bees go extinct, then the pollination process would almost come to a halt. Food production would decrease to a point where we couldn’t sustain the world population. Bees are so much more important that the world realizes. My friends make plenty of jokes about my dedication to saving the bees, but… there really isn’t an upside. Scientists don’t have a clear idea what’s killing the bees. More research needs to be done to save these tiny, important insects.
Now you know why I care about the environment, but now I have to ask, why don’t you?  We all share this planet and can’t get another one. It is our responsibility to take care of our home. You might not care about what happens to Earth because nothing bad will happen in your lifetime, but you’re wrong. While nothing catastrophic will happen, we will leave behind bad habits and irreversible damage. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States, once said “Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources…for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men …skin your country of its beauty [or] its riches.” It can be hard to see the difference one person can make. If we all make a few small changes, we can make Earth a better place for everyone.