A story in New York - What can we do as the youth?

I participated in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, which was held at the UN headquarters in New York last week. Young people from all over the world got together to claim their opinions and suggestions in order to speed up the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In this conference, I was so inspired by the passion of other youth and was impressed by how much they want their voices to be heard. Even though I have been involved in multiple activities regarding climate change and sustainability as a student, I realized that I have not been very conscious of the importance of being a “youth”. Even though the youth are an entity whose abilities tend to be underestimated, their power can be extremely influential at times.

“The youth have the skills and the right to engage more in the decision-making process.” This was one of the statements made by one of the youths in the conference. Her enthusiastic look and voice made her message very strong. Another girl clearly made solid and concrete suggestions on the action on climate change, adding some message in French besides English. There are so many young people across the world who continue to work diligently to contribute to the world. I also need to be one of them. I have enjoyed an extremely privileged environment throughout my life and I have the responsibility to give back to the world. Now I have decided that I need to be a person who can inspire people around me more and who can influence society as one of the youth, for I think they have special power and being a youth is another privilege that I have.

The UN is a place that reminds me of my high school days, when I was working hard with my friends to learn more about the issues happening in the world. As I get to know more about problems, things always turn out to be more complicated. I am often confused about which solution I should pick and choosing a career is not as simple as I used to think. But still, I want to keep challenging myself without losing the passion I had those days.