Speaker: Sydney Collins, New Haven, CT
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Sydney Collins: Hello, my name is Sydney and I want to share a little bit about my climate journey for me. I didn't start in the classroom or out of protest. It began at home. Uh, I grew up in a small rural town in Connecticut.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Sydney Collins: Hi, my name is Sydney. And I want to share a little bit about my environmental story. So I grew up in a small rural town in rural Connecticut called Wellington. Our house was surrounded by trees and we had far off neighbors. Um, and why I grew my love for the outdoors. It was also wrought with a lot of small rural town problems. Uh, my mom and stepdad both struggled with alcoholism and co abuse and our lives were very car dependent from where we got our grocery or how we got our groceries, how we got to school and who wrote the paycheck. And so when I first learned about the climate crisis, I was shocked and scared because the outdoors, especially with my home life or my sense of safety and where I would run off to. Um, and I couldn't believe that that was something happening and no one was doing anything about it. Um, and as I got older and stuff with my family intensified, I was really scared and I would not talk about my feelings. I would hide my truth thinking that the denial and the avoidance of my home life would allow me to hold on to safety. But once I got to college and I was studying environmental science, I couldn't avoid the truth of the climate crisis, at least anymore because the facts were staring me in the face. And I had a deep question with myself of how I could stay silent in the face of something so urgent and so pressing and so terrifying. And so during college, I also found myself at the door of the Yukon recovery community. And I was starting to explore my own recovery and how to heal from the stuff that had happened within my family. And the more I grew with my recovery, the more I learned how to be vulnerable and be authentically scared and ask for help in admitting I felt helpless. And now I find that my recovery is one of the biggest foundational blocks for my advocacy. Not only has it showed me how to do advocacy work more sustainably but allows me to deeper connect with my values and being community with other people.
