My first memory connecting with nature is a little blurry after twenty years of age; however, I do recall some details. I was four years old at the time, walking through the zoo I would later come to work at. My pregnant mother was off with my father, pacing the boardwalk to encourage my brother's arrival whilst my grandparents watched over me as I entertained myself at the enclosures. Here, I remember being eye-level with a fawn and feeding the little thing through the fence with pellets purchased for a few cents, letting out a joyous giggle as it tickled my small palm with its tongue. The relationship I have come to cultivate with the planet as I grew up is one of deep, solemn respect and utter humility; built on deep-seated awe, gratitude, wonder, and curiosity. In turn, it has directly affected my educational decisions as it fundamentally drives them as I choose to study relevant topics, in part out of my immense fascination with how the world works, but also out of a desperation to understand the root of these issues and their potential solutions. Most significantly, this relationship is the reason I chose my major, Sustainability Studies, which is aligned with my intended career path as a sustainable international development practitioner to actualize the change I seek to see in the world, fundamentally rooted in my love for this planet and my corresponding desire to protect it. Specifically, within the courses I have elected to take thus far, I have studied climate change, environmental science, sustainable international development, agriculture, and the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability. However, I am also a huge proponent of experiential learning as a critical component of my education. Hence, my educational decisions also entail action, as I practice what I preach within my own community. For instance, last semester I obtained an internship with genCLEO, a youth climate education advocacy nonprofit, in which I worked to develop an entire campaign plan related to municipal energy generation policy and advocacy. In doing so, I ended up visiting the state capital to speak with representatives about these issues, filmed an entire documentary, and started volunteering at a local nonprofit to help reduce energy bill burdens, learning all about the intersections between energy generation, climate change, and policy in the process. Furthermore, I joined a citizen advisory board where I learned all about comprehensive planning, zoning, and laws as I made direct recommendations to county commissioners on topics such as environmental protection policy. Likewise, I helped form the Sustainable Students Coalition to help uphold our university's policies and programs after our office of sustainability was shut down. Moreover, sustainable agriculture is a major passion of mine given its links to climate change, deforestation, water pollution, etc. Correspondingly, I’ve bolstered my knowledge of sustainable alternatives via textbooks, revitalizing a community garden, and volunteering at an established organic farm. Most recently, though, I took a major leap of faith and went to Belize to study nonprofit operations management within the context of a developing country whose economy is consistently at odds with environmental conservation. Here, I stayed at an over 1,000-acre wildlife sanctuary that sustained itself from rainwater and solar panels, showing me sustainability in practice as I learned all about land conservation management. Altogether, what I have learned for certain is that our Earth and its systems and cycles exist in a perfectly intricate though delicate balance, making life on this planet an inexplicable miracle and humanity's greatest gift, which I seek to do everything in my power to protect.