Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greeds.”
I take Gandhi’s words very seriously, especially when he spoke about the environment. My parents were very keen on the idea of having their first born child outside all the time. They wanted to make sure that I was a happy and healthy baby, so starting at the age of 7 months, I played outside a lot. By the time I was two years old, I stayed outside more than I stayed inside. When I was four years old, I stumbled upon an exterminator at my neighbor’s house. I did not understand the concept of death at the time, but when my parents explained what the man was doing, I promised them that I would do everything that I could possibly do in order to make Earth safer for the plants and the animals that lived on it. There were very few ways for such a small person to make a big difference in the world. One of the ways that I decided to help Earth out was to grow my own garden.
When I turned five years old, I convinced my parents to let me grow a garden in the back yard. I planted flowers, blueberries, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkins, and even corn. My parents were very enthusiastic about it, but looking back on it now, they probably thought that I was silly for trying to make such a big difference. I would check on my garden every single day, and I even got my parents to let me switch bedrooms so I could see my garden out of my bedroom window. Shortly after I planted my garden, fruits and vegetables started growing. I was incredibly proud of myself. My family and I ate the food from my garden with every breakfast and dinner we had for about a month. I thought that my garden was making the earth healthy again. I refused to use fertilizers and other chemicals in my garden. I would not even let my parents use non-organic fertilizers on our lawn. I told them that the “fake stuff” would make the earth sick. Another way that I tried to help save the earth was by donating all of my allowance money.
For my eighth birthday, my parents brought me to the Philadelphia Zoo. While we were looking at the bats, I noticed that they had a donation section. I pointed at it and asked my parents if we could donate five billion dollars… they laughed at me and asked if I ever wanted to go to college. My dad picked up a brochure and brought it home with us. After a few days of discussion, my parents agreed to let me donate my allowance every month to help save the bats. After about a year of me sending money to the Philadelphia Zoo to help them save bats, they sent me a certificate of adoption, saying that I donated enough money to adopt a bat from them. I adopted a female bat and named her Stella, after my favorite book “Stellaluna.” My allowance helped the Philadelphia Zoo shelter her and give her food. I made my parents take me to the zoo once every month so I could visit her. She died when right after I turned sixteen years old; making her live to be the age of eighteen years old. Donating money to save the bats made me realize that even though it might not seem like it, people are trying to save the earth and all of her inhabitants.
Saving the planet and all of the animals who occupy it has always been something that I’ve tried to do for most of my life. Although there are more than two ways to save the planet and animals, I focused specifically on creating my own garden and donating my money to saving the bats. I do not regret starting a garden or donating my money because I know that even though both things were small, I made a difference.
