In the age of the internet, with all of its internet activism and social media movements, it can be easy to become disillusioned by the seemingly large scale of the issues you’re passionate about. However, you don’t have to be Time’s Person of the Year to make real change and I think it’s time for some of us to take a step back and remember that all change starts at a local level. 

The youth are our future, and one day my generation is going to be the ones in charge. We’re going to be the leaders, the teachers, the politicians, the president. We’re going to be voters, and we’re going to raise our own children someday. Yes, we’re going to have a lot of power in the future, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have any power now. As far as I’m concerned, the fate of the world is already in our hands, and we can start changing things as soon as we want to.

Just look at Greta Thunberg: Greta didn’t just show up at the United Nations and give a speech that received international media coverage on her first day of the climate strike. It took months before anyone even recognised her cause, months before anyone even joined her. Thunberg’s movement started on a local level.  It took one person, one 15-year-old girl, protesting in front of her local government building to spark a fire in the hearts of millions all across the world. 

In order to create a world we want to live in and a world we want to raise our children in, we need to start enacting change on a local level. 

For students, we need to start with our schools, classrooms, and then work our way up. First it’s one classroom, then it’s a school, then it’s the district, and then your entire city. Change can be explosive, but in most cases its painstakingly gradual. That doesn’t mean it isn’t happening; it’s just taking its time to manifest.