On September 20, 2019, I participated in the #GlobalClimateStrike in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Until today, I had never attended anything like the climate strike, mostly because I've never felt compelled to decorate cardboard signs, pack my school supplies up, and march into the city to yell at people. I have never been one to try and force my opinion down anybody's throat, especially a city full of strangers. But this was different. Today, this was a generation refusing to carry the burden left behind by those before us. This was about children fighting for our future in the face of those failing to address a global emergency. This was us reminding those in power that our house is on fire.
This morning, I walked out of class, got onto a bus, and joined hundreds of people crowded around St Petersburg City Hall in downtown. Someone was delivering a speech over a loudspeaker and another was yelling chants through a blowhorn. A man was going around passing out cracked cardboard signs. He handed me a neon green one that said "Time is out" in all caps. I looked around at the other signs people were using to put their opinions on display: "ExxonMobil, Climate Villains", "Planet Over Profit", "Clean Energy Now!", "System Change Not Climate Change". I heard people chanting about fossil fuels, clean air and water, and the power of the people.
"I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire." -Greta Thunberg
This was the first rally I had ever chosen to participate in. It took me a few minutes to soak in what was really going on. The first thing I noticed: people were really mad. One woman, with a sign that said "protesting since 1969" was clearly agitated, wearing a scowl on her face as she chanted back. And reasonably so. I would be mad too if I had been protesting for fifty years without being heard. I saw people my age, college students, pleading for change, "Why should we go to school when you won't listen to the educated?", "We skipped our lessons to teach you one." Then, I noticed how many really young kids were there. One was talking to a news reporter, explaining why he was there at the rally. Another was up on her dad's shoulders, helping hold a sign that said "Our waste should not outlive our grandchildren." It was a lot to take in. But I didnt even have time. We were beginning to march.
When we started marching, I was quiet. It wasn't a particularly comfortable place to shout things out, with families eating lunch on the sidewalk and elderly couples trying to walk their dogs. But then, I started to notice that even those who were not actively marching were chanting too. People would drive by honking, giving the thumbs up. Old ladies on mopeds stopped and beeped their horns to the tune of our chants. Shopowners stood in the doorways and took their phones out to video us, shaking their fists in encouragement. It was empowering, and I decided "What else am I here for? This is a problem that involves every single person on Earth, not just a certain gender, age, or race. Everyone". So, I started chanting, and yelling. And I yelled at the top of my lungs whatever everyone else was yelling. I yelled because I wanted to show people that I was serious. This is our home we were fighting for. Our future, our children's future. I can say that it was honestly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Strangers, coming together to fight for the same thing: the future of our planet. The most incredible part is that it made me feel like I had a voice, and collectively, our voices were going to be heard.
Turns out, the global strikes today were the biggest climate protests ever, which gives me hope. Maybe, my participation in the march today will truly make a change. Maybe it won't. But at the end of the day, I contributed to a voice much bigger than mine. And my city contributed to one even bigger than that. And as a country - a planet even - of determined young people, hopefully our voices were loud enough to finally be heard.
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