The Time to Change

Froilan C. Bacungan
2005-18182

My favorite time of the year, like most, is during the “berrrr” months because it just feels literally and figuratively cooler. I could take longer jogs during the morning and have earlier strolls in the late afternoon. The perfect blend of the coming Christmas season along with the mild and welcoming warmth of outdoors makes it just easier to chill out anywhere. Not needing to run to the nearest mall to keep cool, my friends and I could just talk in some random outdoors café or restaurant and bask in the familiar cozy air of the holidays.
Nowadays, although the calendar seems to say that it’s already my blissful months, the weather doesn’t seem to agree. Granted, we do have cold spells, especially in the ungodly hours we have to wake up to prep for school, and take that very short shower, but now, sometimes by sunrise, the humidity and the heat seem to just crawl out from nowhere. I used to run laps just before the day sets, because usually, by this time, it’s cool enough to enjoy the breeze and just enough sun to feel alive, but now, I just can't seem to find the right time to.
Before I would jog from wherever to wherever, whenever I felt like it and actually even welcomed the rain, even just to wash me off and cool me down. But these days, I only stick close to home or bring a car if I want to go far because we don’t seem to have agreeable weather anymore.

I liked the documentary because undoubtedly it hits home. While I was watching “The Inconvenient Truth”, I found myself imagining what about my country because if in some years time, Greenland may be underwater, then for certain, the Philippines will get hit hard too. Since all this global warming talk got started, I can say that I've always kept myself in the loop, always asking about the new technologies coming around that can maybe slow our impending end down and maybe even reverse it.
I’ve never been truly apathetic to the environment, I don’t litter, I try to walk to and from school when I can, and I never care to spend more than what’s necessary for me to get by, so the footprint and the movie didn’t really move me to change much but it did give me a stronger appreciation for the little things.
I conceded quite long ago to the fact that if we want things to change, it must take a massive action, and I always saw this as some sort of fantastic invention, some thing that can undo what we and the generations before us have done, some high-tech innovation that will shoulder the need for fossil fuels or some new multi-purpose material that will replace the need for “non-biodegradables”. Yes, this seems far off but as an aspiring engineer, this is what I was and still am hoping and studying for.
The only difference now is that I now know that even if this new age of eco-friendly technology spreads all around the world, if we as one people still don’t make a conscious effort to change and a solid movement to in fact sincerely and truly care, we’ll just end up taking our Earth so much more for granted and just discover new ways to ruin it.
Whether or not the death of our home is indeed imminent should not be the issue for that is simply a means to an end. We should not care whether or not we’re still in the clear or in fact in the 11th hour, we should just recognize that we are taking something that does not and will never belong to us excessively for granted and in no way should this ever be condoned.