How I change Cambodia
Changing is not something that is easy, it needs to be stepped by steps drop by drop small to big and of course the small steps make up the bigger picture. Some people think that changing a country is a hard mission and some believe they can’t do it, but isn’t that called giving up? well, some are determined to change even a small step, but the small steps of those people will make a bigger picture in the future and making changes.
Changing is a challenge that everyone should take in their life. Once you did it you will understand the meaning of Change even more. Before everything started I have no idea what I am going to do to change my country, but after this years and I have looked back to what I’ve done and what I have gone through that is that time I realize that I did change something. The first things that I have noticed this year the most is I have changed myself. Myself the person whom I know more than anyone, the person I always am also have changed, my perspective on things and idea to the world, how I behave toward others and to my everyone in the country whom I called Family. Before I can be changed anything I have to change myself to be a better one too.
I have changed in some of the areas of my life and I don’t feel like the old was bad, it just that I need to change something about me to make myself be better and to make myself improve on what I should be. “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we ain’t really living.” This is an excellent quote by Gail Sheehy it is just the way life should be Changes are the best way to make yourself better. I used to be the one who doesn’t like to speak a lot in class because I just don’t feel so right when I am talking, it just makes me uncomfortable, but thanks to those hard times it makes me challenge myself to speak more in class and to involve more too. Those times don’t come by easily I have to go through a lot I have to be the one who I never be and I have to do with something I have never wanted to do, but at last it makes me become the person I wanted to be and it does change me to be who I am today . It makes me understand about myself more and I began to understand that I do like discussing and speak in class, but it just that I haven’t get out of my comfort zone to explore the actual self of who am I yet. Passionate overflow the hidden me, I have never thought I could just go and talk to random people whom I never knew before and question them about their life story, but I did and I love it. Talking to people asking them some questions in a friendly manner is what I love to do right now. Communication with people is now is passion i can’t stay still if I saw random people in front of me sometimes because the inside of me just wanted to talk to them and get to them and all of these make people know me as the friendly one all of this passion coming because of an exploration I have this year called Humans of Cambodia(HOC).
HOC is an exploration I have and I love it so much and I don’t want it to end, still it did, however, everything I had to learn and receive is still remaining in my head and is forever going to be the memory of this girl. It just makes me feel like everyone in this country is a family and showing people that one is caring for another. In HOC we have to interview people trying to get their life story and Of course, those stories are from the Cambodian people(Khmer), why should we do so? Well, the reasons are because everyone has a different life story, the hurtful, happy moment those are everything people have the experience, but not everyone has experience in the same situation as those people.
There are many things we all should learn about because sometimes in life you will meet those times or might saw someone get into those times then you can understand that life is not all about perfect it is about what you will meet in life. There are many times that people judging others by their appearance which is mostly known as Judging books by their cover, Don’t judge the books by their cover just like human don’t judge them if you don’t know their story because not everyone has the same story and nobody knows anyone better than their own selves. HOC has taught me a lot and change myself and also my country that everyone is special everyone is important and everyone is a part and the beauty of this country.
No plastic exploration was a big part of changing Cambodia this year for me too, it plays a big and important of Changing. Plastic is everywhere nowadays and in the exploration, we have survey people and asking them about their opinion about plastic and their answer are nearly all are the same because it is cheap, convenient those are the most common answer that we get. Plastic is useful to many people including me everyone using it, but the issue is that where does it go after we use it? Some people throw that plastic to the trash bin, but some are throwing it anywhere they found it is easy for them. The plastic is not something that melts in days, weeks, but it takes up to years and not just 1-2 years some plastic even taken to million years. A single day if you use 10 plastic bags and in a year you will use 3650 bags and if everyone around the world use that much of plastic each then how long does those plastic take time to biodegrade? If people all throwing them everywhere they can throw it doesn’t mean that that plastic will stay there forever and rain, storm, wind, of course, will bring those to the ocean because the ocean is nearly all of the earth surface. If those are in the ocean then it will flood everywhere in the ocean and how many animals are there in the ocean there are tons of them and if those animals confused and it that plastic then the bigger problem is coming because that animal will die and those animals will become less and less even if they don’t eat that plastic it still contain commercial and it will destroy their habitat and our ocean. Those are the problem is they don’t throw it to the trash bin what about if they throw it to the trash bin does all of the problems above fade away?? Still, there are many consequences if we used plastic, even you throw it to trashbin there are still things that might happen to our planet. The solution is started from you and each of us if you want your planet to be safe try to less down the amount of plastic that you used and you something else that can replace that plastic. If you always use a plastic water bottle then started to use the metal water bottle, the same as straw. Talking about straw we think it is just a small part of plastic, but straw is one of the most use plastic in the world because of the ideas of people we all should think of the small parts it might become a big problem later on. There is also another solution that people can do which is recycled that plastic into something else that we can use and if we all do like that the amount of plastic use will reduce by a lot. If you want to save our planet then reduce the amount of plastic you use and use some other things that can replace plastic.
Plastic is not what should pop in people mind when they ask about their country or our planet just like for me, when people ask me about Cambodia or my Khmer favorite word,the word Khmer itself just pop up in my head just like it always there and it makes me never forget that I am who I am and where I am from. Khmer might sound short and simple, but to me, to everyone whom we called ourselves Khmer had a different view of it. Khmer the word itself determine the confidence, the power, the peace, and happiness. Khmer is sweet but powerful. We are the people of this kingdom of wonder, Cambodia and the people that determined to dream big and also to create a big change and impact.
Our flag is up in the sky and our literature is still is something that identifies us. The Alphabets to the vowels and many more that have more meaning than what people think, those things make up us Khmer. Those small pieces in this country make us who we are. Kroma, Angkor, Prohok, make people know us those small things make up the bigger picture of us just like changes small change can make a bigger change. This year I have changed myself and myself have changed the perspective of people in my country and of course, those small steps I have taken this year will help me achieve the bigger steps.
(credit: Quote )
