NC high school student: What I learned meeting Greta Thunberg
As a high school student and gun violence prevention activist, it was an amazing privilege to attend the most recent Charlotte climate strike and meet Greta Thunberg, the internationally known climate activist from Sweden. Meeting Greta opened my eyes to three very important messages not usually talked about in youth activism: persistence, encouragement, and vulnerability.
Persistence: As youth activists, we are alone a lot of the time. Only a few activists are regularly recognized for their hard work: Greta Thunberg, Emma González, David Hogg to name a few. Over the past eight months, I have cheered from afar as my friend, Mary Ellis Stevens, has been striking for the climate. Normally she is alone outside the government building in Uptown Charlotte. Last week she wasn’t.
Greta Thunberg contacted Mary Ellis and joined her, along with a crowd of supporters from the Charlotte area. I was so privileged to be able to attend and watch my fellow activist climb the steps and look out over the crowd of 1,200 participants. I wish everyone could experience that feeling of hope. It can be frustrating working alone, feeling like you are the only person in the world who cares about this issue. However, persistence pays off. I have seen it happen. So, keep striking, keep emailing, keep speaking because occasionally a Greta shows up.
Encouragement: Our past generations have failed us so badly that they have forced youth to act like adults and deal with these issues. My fellow youth activists and I see a continuous cycle of people not doing anything. Issues such as gun violence and climate change could have been fixed years ago. But lawmakers chose the easy path. Now, as one of the speakers said, our grandparents have had a nice world but we will not. It’s upsetting that this was left to my generation.
Many people tell me that I don’t have to be an activist. However, us youth are left feeling “If not me, then who?” Greta is often seen as the face of youth activism. But on Friday, I saw so many other youth on that stage who are calling for action and demanding change. It is time to step up because if we wait until my generation can vote it will be too late. These issues should not have been left to my peers and me, so I ask you to do something now because you didn’t while there was a luxury. Vote and support people who will help make the world a safer, kinder, more beautiful place.
Vulnerability: It’s humbling to watch someone have the weight of the world on their shoulders. For Greta that is quite literal. She carries it as though it is her most prized possession and worst nightmare. As a nation and as a world, there is so much pressure on my generation to fix these mistakes. There are no breaks when you are running against the clock. There are no breaks when it’s life and death. There are no breaks when your family is being deported. There are no breaks in activism. It was an amazing experience to meet Greta, but I also realized that even our heroes feel the effects of this work.
It’s important to remember that without people like Mary Ellis — the local activists who work week after week, demanding action, dealing with burnout — there would be no movement to support the Gretas when they show up. The most powerful thing I learned from meeting Greta Thunberg is that we all need to let our inner “Greta” shine. Her spirit is inside of all of us.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 5:00 AM.