When I moved to the Bay Area, I found its rolling hills to be boring. My mom would point them out through the car window while driving on the freeway and say, “Isn’t that nice?” and I would mumble, “It’s just green. Everything’s green.” I’d duck my head back down to stare at whatever sort of screen I had in my hands. I managed to ignore the green for ten years. One day, I looked up. Really looked. And I realized the hills weren’t so green anymore, and instead green was replaced by brown, yellow, and tan. And while green bored me before, seeing brown-yellow-tan produced a dull ache in my chest. I really miss green. Sometimes I wonder, what if I never looked up? What if I kept my eyes on the screen in my hands? What if I kept my mind on myself? On my work, friends, and family… but never gave a second’s notice to the home that hosted all of these things? And I think we all do this, but instead on lingering on the what-if’s we should focus on the what-now’s. What’s important is that we look up. We seek out the green. We notice the brown-yellow-tans. We keep our eyes wide open and educate those who insist on keeping theirs wide shut. We educate ourselves. We ask questions: why does the lake in the city park look smaller? Why is the local farm selling less for more? Why are these hills no longer green? “If you aren’t pissed off, you aren’t paying attention,” my statistics professor said the other day. So let’s get pissed off. This is our Earth. We only get one Earth: let’s not take it for granted. Climate change is our reality, but it does not have to be our destiny. It is not the key that will take us to the future, it is the lock with which we will seal away this harmful practice of burning fossil fuels. Climate change is our opportunity to change, and that starts with us. Millennials already know about climate change and global warming. We know it’s a problem, but most of us don’t know how to solve it, and I think it has a lot to do with there not being enough education on this subject, as well as not enough awareness on the actionable steps that we can take. A lot of terms, facts, and science is thrown around, and personally, when I started reading up about it, I was afraid to ask questions or speak out about the issue because I was afraid of looking dumb. I didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know I what I was talking about, and I can’t be the only one. Trump's presidency will only aggravate this situation, will further muddle the difficulties those who aren't so informed about climate change will face when seeking answers and actionable steps. It makes me scared, but mostly it makes me frustrated, and I am grateful at least that it has pushed me to join this platform and conversation, where our peers can feel like they can ask questions, discuss what we know, and get pissed off. Our message to the Trump administration (to all climate skeptics) is clear: The age of change has arrived, and it’s time to keep up.