About Us.
*The magazine
Articles and illustrations by
Valentina Bohorquez T.
Created on March 2025
Hey, be you !
Valentina Bohorquez Torres.
(2025)
Back in the high school days:
“Every single responsibility I had and every decision I had to make felt incredibly transcendental for my life and for the future I was trying to ensure” (...)
I spend most of my high school days in a private school in Soacha, a municipality within Cundinamarca, Colombia. While I had a very simple routine in my teenage years, when I simply used to go from home to school and then, from school I would go back home, in addition, around that time, every single responsibility I had and every decision I had to make felt incredibly transcendental for my life and for the future I was trying to ensure, to the point where I used to be overwhelmed by my academic load and fell ill often.
For example, I used to study for hours to get good scores on my projects and final exams, and as a result I didn´t get enough sleep or forgot to eat whenever I was too focused on my work. I also did not go out as much because of the number of academic responsibilities I had, also because I used to enjoy more serene activities, like reading or watching a movie in my free time instead of going around with friends to a party or something similar, and to be completely honest, that preference remains untouched to the current day.
Regardless of this introverted character of mine, I used to be very friendly towards my classmates and managed to have countless joyful moments with my friends. We talked and laughed in class or during lunch breaks and after school as well. Occasionally we used to go around eating snacks from food carts.
My favorite, the only one I could eat, really, was green mango drizzled in lemon juice, salt and pepper, and my friends used to get more interesting combinations, with syrup and sprinkles that were far too sweet for me, because of my hypoglycemia diagnosis. However, I certainly cherish those memories I shared with my friends back in my high school years.
It is known by pretty mu every person with an internet connection that we keep on incurring in t unsustainable exploitatio our planet´ s resources, future generations won ´ have any left to continu living any sort of conven lifestyle.
Nevertheless, I think th this must be comprehen from a holistic point of v because if we keep on thinking that small indiv efforts are going to be enough to stop climate change and its dangerou consequences, we will re the no return point of g warming.
To give an example, if w don´t demand that our governments take actio radically transforming national legislations into
Which is why I think that, if we, civilians, politicians, scientists and businesspeople, amongst others, join efforts, we could better contribute to our survival and that of other species inhabiting our planet, animals and plants alike. Finally, I consider that if we don´t start perceiving our world as a common scenario that has life and purpose of its own, instead of some land and resources to monopolize and to profit from, we won ´t be able to solve the roots of the problem: the individualistic mindset that comes from capitalism and its derived, over consumption.
To summarize, I think we could generate a greater impact if we realized which level of responsibility we hold, and then we committed to it. If we contribute with the small domestical sustainable tasks at home and lower our waste and, therefore, our consumption of
but it needs to become a powerful movement, and for that, we also need political influence, so, at the end, who we choose to represent us matters, twice as much, because it may have the greater impact on our countries and planet’s transition towards more sustainable practices.
Articles and illustrations by
Valentina Bohorquez T.
March 2025