The night arriving in Bangladesh, August 6th 2025, was a memorable one indeed. Thick air hitting me as soon as I stepped out of the airplane.

“I’m home”, I mutter under my breath.

Being extremely giddy to be back in my home country after 14 years. But as soon as I walked out I was hit with reality. Crowded roads, unfinished buildings, trash on the roads, and air pollution. In 2022 there were about 225,000 deaths in Bangladesh tied to anthropogenic (Human caused) air pollution.  I was devastated to see the conditions but I was happy to be back after so long. Me and my family stayed in Dhaka for a week. Within that week I got to see the real pollution sprouting.
                    On August 9th, 2025 I woke up to the noise of a chainsaw, a person was cutting down some trees and I was wondering “why”. Deforestation is responsible for roughly 10-15% of global CO2 emissions, and it isn't helping that Bangladesh is one of the most polluted countries in the world.
                  On August 13th, 2025 me and my family went to our house in the countryside and boy do I tell you that it was even worse there in some places. There were less cars but it was a smaller area which was dangerous considering all of the Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO) they were all pumping out in the confined area. The only area in the countryside that was somewhat not destroyed and still had a fair amount of trees and was the park. My cousin took me and my siblings to the park and it was so beautiful seeing the trees preserved.

“Gasping” we all collectively looked in awe.

“It's beautiful” said my younger cousin

“I love this place,” said my oldest cousin.

It truly was a magical experience. 3 weeks have passed, it's time for me and my family to get ready to leave for the airport. I hope to see things changed for the better and for a cleaner and more well-balanced community. Only you can make a difference.
                      Coming home from Bangladesh felt great. Coming back to friends, cousins, and even going back to school to see everybody; that I couldn't wait for. But I was thinking about my time in Bangladesh. How much fun I had there, visiting old relatives, and seeing people I have not seen in a long time, but also the environmental situation. Reminiscing all the pollution that was there. New York on the other hand isn't as bad but still worries me a little bit, considering the magnitude of the city/state. New York has been slowly rising in both temperature and water level. Which is all bad for the state considering a lot of important transportation runs below sea level.
                      New York has been my home for as long as I can remember. Being born here and raised I knew how different things were back then. Seeing the temperature slowly go up in increments made me really dejected. Higher temperature means less and less  snowfall each year. I personally love snow, in the past I would always have snowball fights with my friends. Having the time of my life. In terms of transportation I loved taking the train. The train was always so cool to me, just riding and seeing everything go so fast or even seeing new areas that I have not seen in my life before. With the water levels rising we may not have this for future generations anymore. With roughly 1.1 to 1.12 feet of water rising, slowly adding up. Who knows, we may not have trains anymore if this keeps going at the pace it is. But there is still hope you can make a change. We can save the snow and keep the trains running.
                    Coming outside of the train, I walked up the steps to enter “Flushing, main street”. I went to the Q25 bus stop and I waited for the bus. I took the bus and rode it all the way to Kissena Park, where my uncle was waiting for me. We exchanged hello’s

”Hello” I said to my uncle

”How are you kiddo?” He said right back at me, making me smile.

He brought my bike and I rode it into Kissena Park. My uncle went to his usually sitting place, and I went to circle the park and go see the ducks/swans. When I made it to the pond, I smelt the air *sniff* and what I saw were two guys on their motorcycle and smoking. The bikes were turned on and pumping so much carbon monoxide, as well as them smoking. This wasn't just a high end bike, they were the older generation. Meaning they did not have any environmental benefiting features. In my head, I was getting fuming but I couldn't do anything. I didn’t want to tell them to shut off their bike. Fearing that we could get into an argument. Especially since my uncle was nowhere near me. I disregarded them and just went to go see the swans. The swans at this park I’ve been feeding for the past 2 years. Of course they didn’t remember me. I was just a daily person that would feed them treats. I watched them grow, seeing the last generation pass and the new one coming in. I approached the usual feeding spot but I didn’t see them. I was so sad and confused as to why they weren't here, especially on a sunny and beautiful day, but then I remembered that the bikers most likely scared them off. The toxic fumes and the loud noise, including the smoking most likely scared them away. I was super sad, I circled the park one last time just to get one final sightsee in before I leave for today. And low and behold the bikers were gone and the swans were back! I was extremely giddy, I went to go feed them and all ended well.
                    A couple days have passed since I’ve been to Kissena Park and I have just been doing my own thing. September 6th 2025, me, my family and my cousins went on a mini road trip to update NY. One last small vacation before school started, I was sitting in the car, smelling the air and seeing all the new and interesting buildings/places that I have never seen before. After a couple of hours we made it to our hotel. But I noticed something off about this hotel, they were renovating/adding a new area to the hotel. At first I didn’t really care at all. It didn’t bother me or affect any one of my family members/cousins. Suddenly I heard something go off, looking out the window I saw a construction worker using a chainsaw to cut down trees to free up space for the renovation. I was staring, shocked splattered all over my face. All the carbon dioxide being released and the trees being cut down, which was slowly running the beautiful environment. I opened the window to scream at the person working with the chainsaw and release all my pent up anger. He didn’t hear me through the headset because it was for noise cancellation. His headphones were meant to prevent the noise of the chainsaw from damaging his ears. A couple hours passed and I reported this to the staff. The staff turns out did not give them any authorization. They even told them to specifically avoid that part of the hotel, because it added to the scenery. He didn’t listen and did it anyway. He got arrested, which made me really happy and it honestly made me wish I reported this sooner but at least I had the courage to tell the hotel staff. New trees were being planted in place of the old ones and that was all. Me, my family, and my cousins went to the zoo, saw animals and then took the drive all the way back down. I loved that the hotel had restrictions on touching the environment. I wish more hotel owners would be like this and honestly if more people cared it would’ve not been dangerous. That's why you can make a change, it all starts with you.