This is an essay I made, awarded as the first winner in the essay competition organized by Britzone, the largest English community in Indonesia.
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” – Howard Zinn. This would be the best quote to remind us that it will never be fruitless if we do something small to achieve a big goal. We can cite many examples to transform our pessimistic into an optimistic mindset. For instance, a person or a group who dances randomly on TikTok can inspire many people and make people desire to imitate the way that person or group dances. This phenomenon would lead to the idea that specific actions can be contagious. Still inspired by that idea, why would we not try to influence people to preserve the environment?
Reflecting on the aforementioned question, some small actions can be implemented as a starting point to preserve the environment. We can summarize these actions into three powerful steps, which consist of thinking, doing, and spreading.
By thinking, you as a young generation can search for many actions around the world that are applicable for being implemented in your circumstances. Nevertheless, you may also bring out a brand-new idea by thinking. A way to start thinking is by looking at certain thing that would harm our planet, for example, plastic. Then what does plastic do? How can it affect our planet? What can we do with plastic? By popping up some questions on your mind, you would encourage yourself to do something regarding it. Nevertheless, it should not always create a new idea; collecting the rubbish disposed of into the river would also be a great idea to start preserving the environment.
Then, after you have thought about the idea, do it. Indeed, it is a piece of cake to say do it. Nonetheless, the only choice to make something happen is by doing it. For example, if you care about plastic, then you can make something creative from the disposed plastics. Practically, you can collect the plastics in your environment, like plastic bottles, and then fill the bottle with different types of plastic (e.g., plastic bags). By doing it you can make eco-bricks, which can be used for many creative kinds of stuff, like flowerpots, fences, etc. The other example would be simpler: just go to the river and collect all the waste from there. Of course, as inspiring adolescents, you can think of many more ideas.
Finally, grab your smartphone and capture the moment when you are creating your eco-bricks or collecting the rubbish from the river. Admittedly, you will not see how big the impact is after you share your activity. Even worse, this could lead to negative people’s perceptions, as they might think you merely want to show off. Yet, just share these good deeds, and remember that a rotation of many gears can be stimulated by only spinning one gear.
Do not forget to follow these amazing accounts to make your move heard.
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