Yunni Min
UWT Student
Washington, United States

I'm Sorry

“I call myself a dreamer, believing in change yet I did nothing.”

To my future children,

I hope by the time you read this that our world has changed. Right now I live in a world where people are dying from just breathing in the air outside because of pollution. I live in a world where I can't even swim because of chemicals and waste contaminating our oceans. I can’t even take my shoes off to walk in grass, afraid of heavy metals and what it may do to my health when I want to have you. If I and my generation made it so that you and Mother Earth can live peacefully with one another then we have done our job, we’ve done the best we could and succeeded. You can just stop reading here.

If not then…

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry that somehow along the way I wasn’t able to help make a movement, act or even spark inspiration for others to do it. I didn’t realize how much of a mistake I made for not picking up that piece of trash, for not recycling that little can, or even appreciating what I even had. Instead I took it all for granted and now you’re paying for it. I call myself a dreamer, believing in change yet I did nothing. I believed that others would do it, or I was too afraid so I just stopped myself from even taking a step. I was afraid of the backlash I would get from others, being judged, or even trying to take a simple step forward to do something. I feel like I live in a society where everyone tries to dictate to each other instead of working with one another. We would much rather climb by ourselves instead of helping each other to make the climb to a better future. Don’t make the same mistakes as I and my generation have done.

I’m sorry, and I wish you luck.