November 17, 2023

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Its 6:01am. I’m somewhat better this morning. It’s been an exhilarating climate week but also an exhausting week. I’ve realized that I’m fundamentally a more emotionally even person, and I don’t like the highs and lows. But when I dived into climate work, honestly it comes with really trying to address decarbonization. I have to help try to get big climate wins, and when those wins happen and I truly realize the ramifications – then the emotional crash happens. So I crashed last night after devoting so much emotional energy to helping with the Sweetwater Union High School District Electrification District win and trying to help spread that nationally. I had spent also a good amount of time over the last 2 weeks preparing a talk for the UC San Diego School of Medicine students as well. I appreciate the speaking spot from my dear friend Dr. Luis Castellanos and we did good work yesterday at the medical school. The talk landed well, and it forced me to update my thinking process and my legislative plans for the year. We recruited a good number of medical students who are interested in advocating.

I won’t go into details, but I was able to incorporate one of our undergraduate premedical students and one of the local high school students in the presentation. I think many in the room found it inspiring. I am grateful to be in that role, to be able to inspire medical students. But it’s exhausting and I feel oftentimes I’m performing. Everything I say is heartfelt but being that open and passionate, takes it’s toll.

It was an amazing day. But I need to finish my charts which I did not finish yesterday. Our son is coming home this weekend early from UC Berkeley, and I honestly just want to hug him and look at him. I want to see my daughter try some new recipes, she wants to try making hand-made ravioli. I want to see if she wants to climb a bit, she’s taking it up as a new hobby since she finished with volleyball. And the fortunate thing is that this climate work is by choice. It’s all volunteer. So I’m going to try to turn it all off for a week while our son is home. Even deep in the weeds climate activists need a break.

So I hope all of you take a break as well. Take a break from me, and I’ll take a break from you. Even when you love something so much, sometimes it’s okay to step away.