Young People's Icon, Future Catalyst
Rich Paulo S. Lim
The year is 2021, and the date is June 7th. You've just gotten home and, as is customary, you check your social media accounts before doing anything else. You're scrolling through your Facebook news feed when you come across something intriguing: an article about a little Swedish girl giving a speech on climate change. You click on and watch the video that comes with the article, only to discover that the girl is a young girl dressed in a bright fucsia dress, whose braided hair and facial characteristics give her the appearance of an irritated but undoubtedly cute 12-year-old You watch the full video, but all you get out of it is that she's an irate youngster who has a lot of nerve showing up at an official United Nations meeting.
You find out the next day that you couldn't have been more wrong. This braided girl is all over the news - she's on TV, on your IGTV, and on the top Twitter trends. Your teachers are instructing you to write a reaction paper to her lecture at school, and you and your classmates have probably already mastered her accent. Despite it all, the most "responsive" thing you've done as a result of the challenges her speech is to recognize her angry gaze as a social media sensation. Greta Thunberg said it best. What the hell are you doing?!
Despite being labeled a "mentally ill Swedish child" with a disability, she is committed to disseminating information about the existential crisis until it is resolved. "I believe it is acceptable as long as they target me personally with insults and conspiracy theories. It demonstrates that they are devoid of any arguments. And that they regard us as a threat because of our influence."
The Asperger's diagnosis was a blessing in disguise for her because it was the catalyst for her becoming aware of the climate problem. "I wouldn't be able to sit for hours and read stuff I'm interested in if my brain worked differently," she explained. Her condition explains why she is not scared to voice her thoughts with conviction and why she only sees the world in black and white. She seems unimpressed by other people's stardom, and she appears uninterested in her own burgeoning celebrity. Normalcy, on the other hand, can be overstated at times. Take it from Greta, who feels her illness is nothing more than a "superpower" that has shot her to international fame.
In every film, there will be a scene in which a crisis occurs unexpectedly. The most common phrases you'll hear at this moment are, "Don't just remain motionless. Take action! ". That moment has arrived for humanity, and Greta does not expect us to just sit and watch. And there are no more excuses for her; there's no better moment than now to put on those Velcro sneakers, get out of bed, and save the world.
The author
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is HT-Designate in Science at Atlu-Bola High School