Things don’t feel urgent until they do. For you don’t realize how loud a tide roars until it hits the shoreline. For me, being a sustainability advocate at UC for over 3 years has exactly meant this. Well, not exactly per se, but the imminence of cascading changes for a sustainable future we as an individual or society can make, I only realized working as a sustainability advocate. When I got hired in October of 2016, I hoped to share my enthusiasm for sustainable causes with other people. Little did I know how little I knew about the things I thought I knew. That composting your leftovers, ridesharing with the next-door people, or simply buying a fair-trade coffee, the actions tree-huggers do and on better days advocate for, aren’t merely miniature gestures we do to feel good about ourselves. Such actions when devoid of pretense have lasting consequences and implant a bold footprint on the earth, demanding everyone else to act towards our collective sustenance, to act as a unit so we can preserve the whole.
But I would be a fool to pronounce my life as a sustainability advocate in mere didactics I reflect upon. The Office of Sustainability with the team of student advocates I know and I am part of is founded purely upon the culture of love and support.
My supervisors Daniel and Erin and my fellow peers I work(ed) with have nurtured compassion in me and taught me to care more. The hours I have spent with other advocates, recycling, gardening, and discussing and learning sustainability agendas are some of the most ardent hours I’ve spent in college. Working with the sustainability office never felt less than a joy, and a yearning to learn. It taught me about growth. Growth, that is so embedded in nature is something we bring upon one another through acts of love and care. Only now I see it with awe that growth happened there and then. Much like the awe at the sight of a tree blown from a seedling. And it all reminds me, that I am no longer just a wave, but a tide heading the shoreline.
Forever in debt to everyone from the sustainability office. Lots of love.
Sudarshan Pandey
4th Year (Physics and Math)