The Passion Problem
By Xuan Huy Dang
In recent years, the number of youth environmental initiatives has increased significantly in order to promote awareness as well as preserve the environment around us. A passionate advocate for the environment myself, I have been participating in numerous projects, which have enabled me to meet and work alongside a multitude of different talented individuals. As much as I have enjoyed every lesson that the experiences taught me, I was able to realise an important factor that may hinder an organisation’s progress in achieving their goals — passion. With this opportunity, I would like to share my story and view regarding the youth movement in meeting the sustainable development goals.
Having prior experience in public speaking, I was able to take on a prominent role in the Eco team of my school. However, the Eco team did not feel like a team, as people were dull and unmotivated, sluggishly dragging themselves to meetings with less willingness to solve global problems and more effort towards their Algebra homework. Frustrated at this problem, I decided to take action, calling for everyone’s attention and pointing out the true purposes of the Eco Team — to preserve and improve the environment of our school and our local area, as well as to promote awareness of the environmental problems around us. Ending my speech, I eagerly announced that anyone who did not truly care about the preservation of the environment may leave the team. It was bold, but was something that needed to be said. Walking proudly into the Eco session the following day, I was hoping that my seemingly powerful speech from yesterday would have motivated the students to work harder. However, contrary to my expectation, their work ethics were the same.
From this experience, I started doubting the students’ intentions, that their purpose to join different clubs was to be able to add a line to their CV. Understanding the significance of extracurriculars in the college application process, I was once a slacker myself as I would seek every opportunity to participate in a variety of projects to boost my activity list. However, I soon realized that this was the wrong mindset. Working hard on a project you love is similar to pursuing a career that you had dreamt of — the passion that drives you makes the arduous work feels much less tiring. For this reason, if any young people are going to commit their time and effort in a team/project, it is clear that they should work on goals that they are passionate about, otherwise it would greatly affect their work ethics. Consequently, this will cost the organiser money and time, as a lack of hard work will often impede the progress of the whole team.
In my opinion, the best way to solve this problem is to activate passion in young people by giving them the opportunity to see first-hand evidence of the serious problems facing us nowadays. Linking back to my experience, I later persuaded the people in my Eco team to visit the most polluted area of Hanoi, as well as provided them with specific statistics regarding the pollution in these areas. Though only five people went on the visit, this method proved to be effective, as those students’ work ethics completely changed as they could finally realise the circumstances of the city that they are living in.
It is clear that in recent years the youth has decided to take on a much more significant role in solving global problems; Greta Thunberg, for example, has been on the forefront of fighting on the global climate crisis and has raised huge awareness for environmental problems around the world. It is vital that the young operate with a burning passion that will be able to drive them towards achieving their goals of improving themselves as well as solving their communities’ issues.
Global Changemakers has an unshakeable mission of supporting youth to create positive change in their communities. A global pioneer in supporting youth-led development, they have trained youth from over 180 countries and provided grants to over 360 youth-led projects, which have had a combined impact on over 6,2 million people. www.global-changemakers.net
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article belong to the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or Global Changemakers.
