Dear Earth,
There’s a question we’ve all been asked a hundred times—“What do you want to be when you grow up?” For some, it might spark excitement, a chance to imagine a life as a doctor, scientist, or engineer. But for many of us, the answer is more complicated. When I think about the future, my mind doesn’t just drift to the career path or the dream job I’d like to pursue. Instead, a deeper fear rises up: Will there even be a future for me to build a career in?
Climate change isn’t a distant problem and it wasn’t to begin with. It’s here, and it’s reshaping everything. Natural disasters once considered rare and extreme are becoming the norm. Take, for instance, hurricanes like Milton and Helene that struck with a ferocity unimaginable only a decade ago. They wiped out communities, displaced families, and caused billions in damage. Thousands of people had to rebuild their lives from scratch, and for many, it wasn’t just homes that were lost—it was jobs, businesses, entire industries that had to start over or disappear altogether. Imagine working toward a career, only to see the very foundation of that career wiped out by a storm.
And it’s not just hurricanes. We’re seeing floods in places where they never happened before. Just think about the Sahara Desert—once a symbol of dryness, sand, and relentless heat, now experiencing unprecedented flooding. The irony of one of the driest places on Earth being submerged is like a warning bell ringing for us all. It tells us that climate change is a global force, ignoring boundaries, affecting places we thought were immune.
This kind of instability creates uncertainty for everyone, especially for young people who are preparing to build their lives, careers, and futures. We’re constantly told to dream big and to reach for careers that will allow us to make an impact, to build something meaningful. But it’s hard to make plans when the world we’ll inherit feels so fragile.
In the past, ambition was encouraged with the promise that the future was ours to shape. But now, the future doesn’t feel as guaranteed. We’re told that to make a difference, we need to become engineers, scientists, environmental activists—but even these roles face unique pressures in a world that may need to spend more time managing disasters than innovating. Even if we choose careers aimed at solving these problems, we still have to wonder if we’ll be equipped for what lies ahead.
Facing the fear of an uncertain future isn’t easy, and sometimes it feels like an overwhelming weight. But perhaps in that fear, we’ll find the motivation to build a career with purpose, not just for ourselves but for the generations that follow. Maybe the question isn’t so much “What do you want to be when you grow up?” but rather, “How can you shape the future we all deserve?”
Sincerely,
Jessica Ngok
Letters To Earth 