We’re not going back in time. We’re going somewhere worse. As a young female in the liberal state of California, I worry for what’s to come with our country. 

Political decisions that have transpired in 2022 are unprecedented: an impending climate crisis, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the war in Ukraine are but a few of the dilemmas that we collectively faced this year. 

It seems like out of the confusion of quarantine, the government was also in a slump – like most people, they were trying to see what’s next for our future. The lack of societal unity caused the government to feel the need to be overbearing, so much so that they have begun taking away our rights. 

Climate change is one crisis that’s causing such a split in our country. 

Did you notice how hot it was in September? What about the signs and notices demanding that you don’t water your grass anymore? We’re doing this to ourselves. 

There are two white rhinos left in the world. The number of coral reefs has decreased by 70%. Animals are becoming extinct quicker than it’s ever been before, and we’re too worried about our phones dying to realize any of this. 

I live in this climate. The changes that are affecting our environment and habitats are also affecting me. After my senior year, I want to travel the world and see aspects of the world that not everybody gets to see. I’m worried that by the time I get to that point, lakes will be dried up, animals will be extinct and I won’t be able to see the things I want to see when I graduate. 

This is my future. This is the future of our entire generation. 

Many people believe that passing anti-abortion laws would benefit us and we would be moving in the right direction. Anti-abortion proponents believe that a fetus is a life right after conception. They believe that people who have abortions are killing a life, and that’s a very emotional, hardhitting idea to think about. But it is also difficult to think about children who are suffering and dying due to the lack of gun laws, yet we’re not taking those rights away.  

Since 2022 started, there have been 46 school shootings that resulted in injury and or death. The states continuously give access to guns to ignorant people who are willing to hurt others, even children, to achieve what they want. 

There have been countless times when I’ve been scared to go to school after news breaks out of school shootings happening all across the country. I get scared if my phone is about to die in case I need to contact my family if there is an emergency. 

The world has gotten to a point where I and many others are worried about what’s going to happen with the future of gun laws and reproductive rights. 

With Roe v. Wade being overturned, we aren’t just entering an era where unsafe abortions are present, but also the spread of criminalization of pregnancy. Many Republican officials have made it clear that they will do everything they can to pass a federal abortion ban, and they won’t stop there. Women now are finding ways to illegally get abortions. 

This November, a measure guaranteeing reproductive freedom was on the California state ballot. Why is that even in the question? I am a woman. I don’t want to ever put my body and my life in the hands of the state. I can’t picture a time when I have to be worried about whether or not I’m “allowed” to get an abortion as anything short of dystopia.  There is no equality without reproductive rights. 

The United States isn’t the only place stranded in deep waters. After deploying troops in 2014, Russia launched an unjustified and unprovoked all-out war on Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine is my home, the birthplace of my mother and grandparents. I never thought that it would be unsafe to visit my family. 

Many have remained in the country either to fight Russian oppression or because they have nowhere to go. I have cousins and family members that don’t want to flee because their loved ones are buried there. People’s homes have turned into personal prisons, battered by Russian air strikes. 

We need to stop putting people in power who aren’t doing what’s best for our country. The world is on fire and our leaders are failing. Our current legion of legislators and officials can’t seem to agree on climate change or making meaningful, constructive foreign policy decisions.  

When it’s time to vote, we should lend our support to the people who want a change, who want to see the world in a better place, not just those who desire power over others. 

Although our world is going to a place that’s worse than the past, we can change for the future and better of our generation and generations after. Our kids one day shouldn’t have to live in a world like this, and neither should we.