As I was driving back from school after the day of the Justice Summit assembly, Mr. Flowers’ advice to “look at the little things” entered my mind. Stopping at a traffic light, I noticed the beautiful nature around me: the moving clouds, the completely blue sky, the chirping of birds above me in the lush, green trees. However, my appreciation of nature stopped short as the driver in front of me dropped a cigarette from his open window. Anger and frustration rushed through my head as my eyes looked toward the soda cans, plastic bottles, paper bags, and other trash cluttering the sidewalks.
Although I had initially focused on the beauty of nature around me, the lack of the care for it seemed to be an endless problem for me. For each cigarette butt I pick up, won’t there be five more littered on the ground? How could we ever sustain the world around us? Looking for an answer, I spoke with Mr. Flowers about his approach to this seemingly endless problem.
“I’m very hopeful about the future,” Mr. Flowers said. “If we do our part by committing to doing something simple, such as cutting our shower to two minutes, we will be doing our part in making the world around us cleaner.”
After listening to his explanation, I focused not on the negatives surrounding me, but rather on my duty to help maintain and preserve the environment. I began by doing the little things: shortening my shower, drinking from reusable bottles, and picking up trash around me.
In order to improve our world and make it cleaner, we have to make sure that we do our duty to preserve it. And to do that, just make sure you do the “little things” that, when added up, will help to make this Earth a better place.