As I walk into Good Hall on a rainy Wednesday morning, selfish, worry-filled thoughts about prom, schoolwork, and boys rush into my head. I grudgingly take a seat and await the bi-weekly Social Action presentation. After many remarks from our beloved teachers, our speaker is introduced.
“May I introduce Ms. Mary Ford, Education Manager at National Geographic,” Ms. Key enthusiastically announces. I sluggishly clap my hands as my classmates welcome Ms. Ford. However, as soon as she started speaking of her love for the environment, I could see that she was truly passionate about the valuable lessons she was to teach us.
As I learned, Ms. Mary Ford is an extraordinary individual with much to teach the world. Not only does she work at National Geographic, but she also travels to explore the diversity in the ecosystems around the world. As she begins introducing herself, she explains her purpose for visiting Stone Ridge – to share with us about the importance of biodiversity.
Growing up, we all learn our fair share of environmental issues the world faces today. However, this does not mean that we truly appreciate it and try to act on it. Ms. Ford shared with us Stone Ridge girls that at least 200 species go extinct each year, which concerns me. We sometimes take for granted the thousands of different animals and plants that surround us. Imagine the idea of biodiversity being destroyed. Ms. Ford planted a seed in my mind that will grow from an idea to an action. It is important for us to take care of our environment – recycle, compost, reuse, etc. – all of these are simple actions we can take to help!
At the start of a regular Wednesday, some of us were most likely preoccupied with which test to study for, who to take to prom, or what we would eat for lunch. All these selfish thoughts transformed positively when Mary Ford taught us about what is truly important – caring for life. We may not be able to teach every person on the planet what we learned today, but we can take the right actions to help the environment, and spread what we learned to people we know!
