be the change

As an agent at February's Commission for Social Development, my first few days were hard. I lost sight of the reasons why the UN's pace is so lethargic and seemingly static. It was pretty depressing to feel like this great international body that I held in such high regard was ineffective. By day 3 or so I reconciled myself with reality, had an amazing time, and have come to CSD a lot more open minded and accepting of the way change is made through the UN.

Any negative sentiments towards the UN were completely erased from my mind as I joined everyone in the loft Saturday, and came to orientation on Sunday. I'm continually impressed (but not surprised) by the caliber of this year's delegates- their enthusiasm, passion, and genuine interest in the issues at hand- it's just plain inspirational. While my own UN involvement is currently taking a backseat to studying for my final exam, I feel pretty honored to be supporting the work and facilitating the experiences of everyone involved.

I've gone to several side events which have renewed my faith in the political will and determination of all stakeholders to take lessons-learned and best practices shared here and apply them to their own projects and programs. The energy and activity of the youth caucus has similarly reinvigorated my faith in our generation to be true agents of change in the present AND in coming years. Our voice is being heard, our presence is acknowledged and appreciated, and our perspective is taken into account.

A few weeks ago columnist Thomas Friedman issued a challenge to our generation to become "the Greenest generation"; I would argue we responded to that challenge before he even made it. We challenged ourselves and our peers to be the change we want to see in this world (Ghandi was a genius). Not only have we risen to that challenge but we've risen to the challenge of pushing previous generations to do the same. Every day the youth caucus distributes case studies on youth as agents of change in their communities working at the grassroots towards sustainable development. We have also flyered CSD country delegates and issued our own challenge-- bring youth delegates to the CSD! Youth are changemakers, challengers, motivators... the list goes on.

This is admittedly become kind of preachy and overly glowing as a post but why not-- being a youth at the UN- with all its flaws- has opened my eyes to the global context for the work I do and the things I care about. The fact that we have a few 12 year olds this year- can you imagine what they'll be achieving in their future?? It's fantastic and exciting. It's also case in point of the power of youth to take action and lead by example.