I Became an Environmentalist Because of My Immigrant Parents

You’ll have heard me share before, that many years ago I made a commitment to live more authentically. In doing the self-reflection work that came along with this life shift, I has a startling revelation that I had been rejecting several aspects of my identity growing up.

I came to see that one of the things that I worked hard to mask was the fact that I grew up in an immigrant-run household where money was tight. I felt embarrassed and reluctant to talk about this as an adult — and in particular, about my parents’ frugality, fearing that others would judge me or think that I was “less than” because I came from a more humble upbringing.

But as part of living more authentically, I knew it was important to be true to my roots and to be proud of who I was, including talking about what it was like growing up in an immigrant household. When I started to actually do it, I had several interesting and eye-opening realizations. One “aha moment” about how I was raised has actually been quite funny: I’m an environmentalist not just because I care about Mother Earth, but also because of my parents’ frugality.

When I had this realization, my parents’ tendency to scrimp, save, reduce, and reuse became a point of pride instead of something to be embarrassed by. (And let me tell you, all of these strategies have been particularly helpful in the midst of the COVID-19 environment!)

In this video, I talk about how I grew up learning to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” and make my case for why immigrants are the original environmentalists.

Watch now!