I learned about sustainability in the backseat of a car in Lagos. We thought the harmattan had hit heavy that year because of the fog, but this was not fog. It was smoke, thick enough to taste, hanging low over the expressway. My twin sister and I told my dad to wind up the windows. He laughed and said, “This is Nigeria. This is normal.” It was not normal to me. I questioned him and asked why it had to be that way. He said, “That is how it is.” I told him this was dangerous to people’s health and that it could be managed. My twin sister backed me up. I made sure my point was heard, because I knew that smoke was harmful, especially to the people walking around in it with no protection. Living between Lagos and California taught me that clean air is not a given. It is designed, protected, or destroyed by daily choices. In Lagos, I saw what happens when systems fail and people stop questioning. At Chapman University, I see what happens when public buses run on time and students choose them over Ubers and I choose them too.
Sustainability, to me, is the refusal to call broken things normal. It shows up in small ways before it shows up in policy. After my father’s 65th birthday, the venue was left in a mess. My sisters and I took it upon us to clean, even though staff could have done it. No one asked us. But I cannot talk about cleaner cities if I do not clean the room I am in. That mindset travels with me. For my international placement at the University of Manchester, I have already researched my footprint. I have booked a direct flight to reduce emissions instead of the cheaper route with two layovers. I will be staying in a dorm close to campus so I can walk to class and reduce daily transit emissions. I have packed a steel water bottle and tote bag, and I intend to buy a travel power strip to monitor energy use. These choices align with UN SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, because how I move is how I consume.
Once there, I will buy from local markets instead of imported chains, join community cleanups if they exist, and document which sustainability habits are cultural versus structural. That speaks to UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. I study International Business Relations because I want to understand why some cities breathe easier than others. That curiosity is UN SDG 13: Climate Action in practice. I am not going abroad to be perfect. I am going to be consistent. One goal, one priority. Why one? Because sustainable change does not happen when one person does everything. It happens when many people refuse to ignore the air they breathe. My goal is to return with one policy idea and one personal habit that I did not have before, and to share both.
