My activism journey: How hard can it be?

Can you be a climate activist when you have so many of your own daily problems to think about? Why would you care about the climate when it doesn’t directly affect you? Well, I hope my story can help answer these questions.

Ever since I was a child, I have cared about the environment. But the fire inside me grew immensely in the past three years. However, being a climate activist when you’re facing a lot of daily issues isn’t easy. I would say the hardest year of my journey was this one. 

Exactly a year ago, on September 15th 2022, I moved to Belgium for my studies. I always dreamed of getting into Green Politics because I think it’s one of the most effective ways of creating systemic change. The only setback was that I couldn’t start studying right away because of insufficient funds so I had to take a gap year to work. 

For the first few months in Belgium, I found myself applying for jobs and not getting accepted to a single one because I couldn’t speak the official language. I tried not to let myself get discouraged, but it was really hard. I felt miserable and hopeless. In the end, I went for the job that I wanted to do the least: house-cleaning. I always had a lot of respect for this profession, but it has always been one of my least favourite things to do. I remember when I was a child I had to find a mid-solution with my mom because I didn’t like doing house chores. But doing it as a job was much harder than the house chores my mom had
me do.

This job was mentally draining. During winter time I had to cycle to each customer early in the morning. Sometimes I had to cycle about 40 minutes in -5C for clients that I temporarily had until a better replacement was found. Even when I was wearing layers of clothes and a double pair of gloves, it wasn’t enough to keep me from freezing. When I arrived at my customer, my hands were in so much pain that I had to wait for five minutes before I could
start cleaning.

I felt hopeless during these months. I wanted to be out there, in the world, fighting against injustice and climate change. I wanted to speak to people, I wanted to explore, learn, and follow my passion. Sometimes I would even pass by students and day-dream about my first day at university.

During this time, I was still an active member in environmental organisations. Whenever I had free time, especially during the weekends, I would take the train and go on my next adventure. I went to my first global climate march, I went to the pride march, I participated in workshops about climate change, I met other climate activists, participated in debates, I helped organise some events and so much more. From day one until now I have lived every moment of my climate activist journey to the fullest. Because I enjoyed every moment to the
fullest. I would even listen to environmental or political podcasts while I was working. 

On July 30th 2022 I stopped working as a house-cleaner. Instead, I started preparing for my university. It was quite a joyous moment for me.

I know that it can be overwhelming to think about “other issues” when you have your own daily problems. It’s not easy. On the other hand, a lot of these “other issues” concern us too. For example, climate change is something that concerns all of us. Some of us may not be affected by it as much as other people. But it does affect us and it will affect us even more in the future. Of course, you don’t have to be part of many activities and organisations. Every person can take action in their own way and at their own pace. 

There is this wrong perception that caring about the environment is something you have to sacrifice a lot to do, that you have to live very minimalistic and get out of your comfort zone. But that’s not true. Caring about the environment is an opportunity. Not only an opportunity to grow as a person, but an opportunity to breathe fresh air, enjoy abundant clean energy, enjoy beautiful sceneries and so much more. What’s the feeling you get whenever you surround yourself with nature? Isn’t it a feeling of fulfilment and internal joy?

We live in a world with so many resources, so many luxuries, and so many gifts that this amazing balance in the ecosystem provides for us. That’s why, despite facing one of the most unexpected and mentally difficult years, I continued to fight for what I think is worth fighting for. I will continue doing so until the end.

Life is like a bumpy roller coaster filled with both painful and exhilarating memories. To me, environmental activism is definitely one of the beautiful ones.