Final Assignment

Twenty years ago I was sitting in the same classroom you are in now at the same school but in a different time. In my day the major issue at Punahou School was the concept of sustainability and the 2016 initiative. Many of you may never have heard of the 2016 initiative as it passed years before any of you started your journey at Punahou School. Punahou School's goal was to reduce the amount of cars on campus, the waste production and the water usage drastically by the year 2016. To me as a ninth grader the school's sustainability initiative was over the top. I was into the idea of recycling and trying to do less damage to the world but I thought the school was pushing sustainability too hard and it was not the most important thing for us to learn about. Twenty years later when asked to look back on ninth grade I realize I was wrong. The speakers and lessons we had about sustainability, while at the time I pushed them aside did make an impact on me and looking back I realize how important they were. People such as the lady at the green house or the sustainability workers who spoke to us were people who could see ahead and had the foresight to change their ways. While I did not have this foresight I have done my best to contribute to helping the world support our ways.
I graduated from college at the University of Michigan, a school I had always been interested in attending and also a school far from Hawaii as I knew I did not want to stay in the islands I first began to think about everything I had learned at Punahou School. By this time the future we talked about in 9th grade was the present and it was obvious that some of the problems of the world now could have been prevented by our actions in the past, sadly then we did not realize the consequences of our actions. Being from Hawaii and having seen the natural beauty the world has I knew that I had to do something to help protect the beauty of the world for the future.
By this time I knew that I did not want to return to Hawaii and that I could help the environment in other places as there is beauty all around the country and the world. I decided that my role was in protecting the forests of the mainland; I was in the northeastern states and chose to work there. When I realized this was my career path I found there was really no system or regulations set in place to protect; or help people protect these forests. This prompted me to start my own company that worked in the protection of the forests in these states.
The most memorable part so far of my work is knowing that I am helping keep this world better for people to come and hoping that in the future others will join me in this task. I am proud of myself, as this is something I never thought I would end up doing, but here I am proving myself wrong.
While the world is different than I had imagined it when I was in 9th grade with the continuing disregard for nature I am trying to keep the world the way I remember it and hope that some of you will gain the same respect for nature that I did through my journey. Even if now you don’t believe this is a career you may be interested in keep your mind open for your life ahead.