- Both of my parents grew up in Ethiopia.
At the time there wasn't much else to do
besides being outside that was like,
where you wanted to be.
My dad told me he would always be outside playing soccer,
or catching different kinds of bugs.
I've never been like a outside person
as much as I wanted to be because
I've always had like video games to keep me entertained,
TV shows, movies.
During the pandemic you know,
everyone's been feeling like
you've been reliving the same day,
going through the same thing,
whether it's school, work,
some people were online the whole year.
But being able to go in nature,
you're able to experience something new, every day.
My name is Kaleab,
and I'm going into my senior year at
David Douglas High School.
I live in the Lents area,
which is in Southeast Portland.
I'm part of a group called the Lents Youth Initiative,
and through that group
I was able to go to Westmoreland Park
on a dragonfly survey.
Before I went on the survey,
I was terrified of dragonflies and all flying insects.
I really wouldn't like go inside literally,
if I saw a dragonfly in my backyard then I wouldn't come out
until the coast is clear.
I came with one of my friends
and he's explaining to me that they're not gonna bite.
They're not gonna hurt me,
I really didn't care,
I was extremely nervous.
Just the thought that they could just
fly into my ear or
fly into my mouth.
I just didn't see myself doing that.
Catching a dragonfly with my hands,
couldn't be,
couldn't be me.
Then when I caught my first one,
it wasn't like a little damsel fly,
it was a huge dragonfly
so I was like oh no (chuckles).
You try to make a little opening through the net
that we can stick our hand in perfectly.
And then we try to hold the dragonfly by the wings,
in a way that it doesn't get hurt.
It was really loud buzzing so,
I was afraid but I knew it wasn't gonna bite me and
I just went all in
and grabbed it.
(upbeat music)
It looked like an alien, honestly.
The eyes were on the side of its head
I've never seen anything like it.
(upbeat music)
Even my mom didn't believe that I actually did it
until I showed her the pictures,
and she was like wow,
they were proud of me for getting over my fear.
You can get a lot closer than you think,
and admire without being afraid.
And admiration really opened my eyes.
We were able to analyze whether or not
the environment was owning up to what it's supposed to do.
And we learned that it was doing a pretty good job,
there were a lot of dragonflies,
a lot of damsel flies,
and they seemed pretty healthy.
(gentle music)
Keeping the environment healthy is not a specific race,
it's not a specific gender.
Everyone should be included,
but as a black male,
coming from a first generation immigrant family,
it's really hard to make space for this kind of thing,
because you're worried about getting through the day,
getting through the year,
fitting in with people of this country because,
you don't know where you fit in.
You're worried about fighting systemic racism,
police brutality.
But I think it's not fair to always have
thoughts about survival.
We should be able to enjoy things
that everyone else enjoys as well.
I think it's important that programs
like Lents Youth Initiative get support
so that they have the resources to reach out to more people.
Nature, it belongs to everyone.
You notice new things,
you pick up new things
and there's always an endless amount
of exploration to be done.
And nature's the best place to you know,
just be
who you are.
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)