They say time flies when you are having fun. Well indeed it was. Suddenly, it is the last day of the conference and I woke up with this sadness knowing that we will part ways in a matter of hours and for some of us we may never see each other again. This conference has brought a lot to me; knowledge, friends, life lessons and other valuable things that you cannot find anywhere else. Everyday, different IB speakers with different topics have taught me a lot, especially about sustainability that I will be able to spread their words to my peers once I get back to my school. This conference will truly be one of the most unforgettable memories where I gained precious knowledge and I am sincerely honored to be a part of.
We started off the day by hearing Paul Nicklen, a photographer from the National Geographic, shared his journalist/photographer career and experiences in the Antartica and the Arctic. He was a quite laid-back and hilarious guy, telling his experiences through the pictures and stories that never failed to amuse us. He showed us the "supposedly-cannot-be-seen-by-the-public" stills and footage of his recent-not-yet-to-be-published expedition to the Antartica. We saw lots of amazing sea creatures photographed showing their antics to the camera like we have never seen before. I have never expected to see such creatures be able to show their peculiar and odd sides to foreign devices. Seeing these pictures made me feel really sad how the polar caps are melting away and these animals are now highly in risk of extinction as their habitat is slowly crumbling away.
He went on to explain and show us further what he saw while in the Antartica and the sight of the next few pictures were just too disturbing for me to believe those incidents happened. Pictures of people shooting around narwhals to get their tusks were so heart-breaking in addition to hearing how so many narwhals died for only one tusk taken. His words inspired us to be more loving to the environment and it all came back to being sustainable entirely to benefit not only human race, but also the animals' and plants' population in the world as a whole.
Ultimately as a PETA activist and animal enthusiast, I got even more inspired by his seminar not only to try my hardest to spread the word, but also do the action myself just like Quinn Runkle did in UBC. The speakers here in UBC had not only taught me what's all there to know about sustainability, but also the most important elements to make the change; ourselves and our values. Without having the value and drive to make the change, it is impossible for the change to take place.
In the afternoon, all of us gathered together for Global Action Village where each GAT group presented their sustainability projects to be brought back to each of the students' school. Each of the presentation inspired and gave me ideas what to do for my CAS project this upcoming year ultimately focusing on sustainability and how to make the school and surrounding environment better. But if people can be biased without being thought as unfair, I'd choose my group project to be the best as we combined creativity and teamwork while still being coherent to the message. People seemed to agree with me when they gave us standing ovation at the end of our video :p All in all, the session has been enlightening and truly inspiring seeing all of the results from previous sessions at the conference.
Later in the evening, the soccer world cup was held and Canadiens won third place! Tho we didn't get the first place, I am still proud of my teammates and how our captain, George, fairly put every people in the team in the game! Afterwards, we headed down to the beach and had a great time BBQing by the bay and played beach games, although my asian's gen could not brace the windy and chilly weather! Later on after we got back from the beach, we had the last moments of togetherness by not sleeping and talked to each other throughout the night reminiscing the memories that have been made over the past few days. Yes, it was only less than 7 days we have been together, but our friendship will certainly last forever and would not be forgotten.
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