My chosen path

A famous character, Jean Louise Finch (Scout) in "To kill a mocking bird" said that: "Until I feared I losing it, I never love to read. One does not love breathing". Yes, guys do not love the familiar things till they are threatened of missing it. And we, human beings only think about something far and far away while we neglect or maybe destroy our own fountain of life that is nurturing us everyday, every minute, every second – the air. But I love air, love this environment than anybody else.

          The story began when I was only seven, my beloved aunt was diagnosed with lung cancer. No one in my family can believe it. At 24 years old, she was the epitome of health: she ran every day, never drank alcohol or smoked. That day, I was still very small, but it had dawned on me that my aunt had received a capital punishment. That whole year have haunted me until now, there were no family meetings, no smile in the house even the slightest. I barely had a dinner with my whole family because they all had to take care of my aunt in the hospital. And that new year eve would have been a cozy family gathering if there had not been that news coming to my family: we could no longer see her.

          We trod the mud in a misty spring morning, it was three months after the day my aunt passing away. On the ground of the cemetery, drenched flowers lay in her remembrance. It was all silent saved my grandmother's sobbing, it was first loud then gradually shrank and stopped. She fainted. We all took her to the emergency room. Anxiety clouded my mind, I only knew to clutch my father's arm tightly. There was a thud in my heart when the doctor concluded: she was diagnosed with lung cancer in the latest stage. Only few months later, she left us.

          It was a traumatizing experience, my whole family was all depressed why such coincidence can happen lung cancer was not an inherited disease. Until that day, the factory in our neighborhood was accused of exhaling an illegal level of pollutants into the air. And it was also the first time we realized that apart from our family, almost all families in our neighborhood also had members suffering from respiratory-related problem. Not long after that, my family had to migrated to the city to save our own life. The day we leaved was full of grief and tears. I missed my hometown, my small house, where I had my pure childhood with my whole family that still had aunt and grandma.

          But such ordeal in my young age could not weaken me. I realized that human had to bear that grief because we do not love and respect  what is familiar to us- the air, the environment. And the only thing I can do to stop this tragedy is to love this environment. I will inspire the other to start loving this environment. Tomorrow, it will be an important day of my life because my team will publicized the first video of our series of documentary about air pollution in Vietnam. Although my path will have many obstacles, but I will not give up because the moment being a climate warrior is the moment I am blessed by my deceased grandma and aunt.