My Journey As A Young Environmentalist

When I look back at my life, I can see that my love for nature hasn't always been as strong as it is now. Yet, I cannot pinpoint an exact moment, an event that made my passion begin. My journey as a young environmentalist is full of moments that follow each other like a string of pearls, occurrences that, without me realizing it, pulled me close to nature, until I did not know how to exist without feeling its presence around me.

I grew up close to nature, in a farmhouse on the outskirts of a town in Türkiye. So many wonderful memories took place there. I still remember playing with my dolls on the grass covered in mud and dirt, going on long walks around the farmlands with my dogs running carefree and full of energy next to me, reading under the trees with flowers forgotten in my hair, and losing myself in the thrilling beauty of the night sky as I stargazed through the evening.

All those memories created the core of my being by making me get acquainted with nature, by making me learn about its forgotten beauties spread all over the cosmos, its love for all living creatures, and the stories hidden beneath the surface.

As I grew older, I started gravitating toward environmental subjects without realizing it. My favorite books had environmental themes buried in them, I watched movies that had forests and mountains over and over again, and whenever climate change was mentioned in a conversation, I was all ears.

And thus, I started to grow as an environmentalist. As I started to listen, look for, research, and read about climate change, I truly started to realize how big and heartbreaking a problem it was. And how it needed immediate attention.

My first environmental project, as I can put it, took place at the start of grade nine, age fourteen. Recently my school had announced that year's theme for the OSSTF (Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation) Student Achievement Awards, which is a writing and creative arts competition that all public secondary school students in Ontario can join. The theme was “I Am Everything They Say I Am Not”. As I have always loved writing, I made up my mind to write a prose piece for the competition.

I started thinking about the theme. It could be interpreted in so many different ways. I wished for my interpretation to be as close to my heart as it could be. After a lot of thinking, it clicked.

Humanity believes nature will be there forever, that it’ll stand everlasting, and won’t get hurt by the selfish actions that pollute its waters and air. What is not considered is…“I Am Everything They Say I Am Not”. Nature will not be there forever, it can’t stand everlasting, and it will get hurt by humanity’s selfish actions.

I put my heart and soul into my piece. I spent hours on it, making sure it represented everything I learned from those childhood days spent in the garden alongside all of my feelings about climate change and how truly unfair and unjust it is. I titled it “On The Eve”

I submitted my piece with a sense of pride in me, for I was so happy with the result. I did not think much of it, for the feeling of accomplishment I gained merely from writing my piece was enough for me.

So you can imagine the shock I received when I learned that “On The Eve” had won the district level of the competition.

That was the first time I truly realized that my love for nature started to grow into something more.

Around six months later, I had another opportunity. Earlier in the year, I joined the Believe Leadership Chapter (A student-run extracurricular course that focuses on teaching elements of leadership to students) at my school. As a chapter member, I was expected to create a passion project, for which I had to choose a problem and create a solution to it using a passion.

I chose to create a project that would help raise awareness against climate change by using my love of writing and public speaking. The result was a ten-minute speech about why I thought climate change wasn’t going away, titled “Unaware”. I named my project “Nature Speech”, and presented "Unaware" in my school’s auditorium. My speech was also filmed and uploaded to my school’s YouTube channel. The recorded version of my speech was showcased during class time in many classrooms around the school.

The creation of “Nature Speech” was a turning point for me. It made me realize that I was truly passionate about nature, and wanted to do something to help make a difference against climate change.

I started to research. I emailed almost all of the local environmental organizations in my region to ask whether they needed volunteers. I started to read more nonfiction articles and books about climate change and keep up with the latest news, which led me to also start to follow more environmental organizations on my social media.

I was so glad I did the last one, especially, for a few months after I started to follow LEAP for Climate I learned that they were starting an online publication, and were looking for editors who were passionate about climate change. I knew I had to apply, and I am thrilled to say I got the position.

So that is my story. My name is Elza Mehdiyev. I am a fifteen-year-old environmentalist whose biggest goal is to make a difference against climate change. I am the Generation Green Editor at LEAP for Climate, and I can’t wait to help showcase the stories of climate-passionate youth in the Generation Green column.