I’m looking out the window. I see clouds, a blue sky and the bright sun. A few chairs away is the woman I talked to before. She started a conversation and at first, I just wanted to keep listening to my podcast because that is what I usually do while traveling. But she was talkative, and I caught myself really enjoying myself. She was living in Alaska but came from Sweden. She had been a teacher, and her husband was working for a company saving the world oceans and he was often traveling to London to convince important people from all over the world to care about our important oceans. She was thrilled when I told her I study environmental science and even more thrilled when I told her I was going to have an exchange semester. She gave me a handwritten business card and told me to email her further on, she would really like to meet again, maybe for a Swedish “fika” while her husband was working. She also, half-jokingly half real, offered me an internship at her husband’s company. This might sound like a made-up story to catch your eye, but it is true. You can never guess what will happen when deciding to take the train and have a conversation whit a stranger, doing something outside your comfort zone.
Not taking the plane from the coastal city Halmstad, Sweden, where I live to Leeds was for me clear from the beginning. For the sake of limiting carbon emissions but also for the sake of showing others that the plane must not always be the first-hand choice. I also choose slower traveling for my well-being, making it possible for head and heart to follow the distance I travel. During my stay I want to focus on exploring the nature and culture instead of buying unimportant stuff, in line with the goal twelve, responsible consumption and production.
Sustainability is more than being aware of your carbon footprint. It is also about social and economic sustainability, well presented in the seventeen sustainability development goals with for example goal number three, good health and well-being and number eight, decent work and economic growth. This makes it complex and for many an impossible puzzle to work out, but everything is impossible until it is possible: landing on the moon, or women’s suffrage. One of the foundation pillars of me wanting to study abroad was understanding how the world operates and how we can make it more sustainable. The most important goal for me and for my exchange studies is goal number seventeen, partnership for the goals. I want to understand how the UK and other countries work with the other goals, to know what I can have in mind in my future work, bringing inspiration but also understanding.
I plan to contribute to a cleaner environment both during my exchange stay and for the rest of my life, stepping outside of my comfort zone and into the shoes of others.
