Changing My Topic

Over the past few days, my classmates have started to pitch their ideas for their passion projects to the class. The "Shark Tank" style presentations allow the presenter to receive feedback from the class and our teachers. There is no doubt my classmates feel passionate about their topics, whatever it may be. Some of my classmates are passionate about things such as the environment, or helping people that live below the poverty line, others are passionate about issues within our society as a whole. Three of my classmates are doing their projects on some pretty "controversial" topics, such as feminism, education and acceptance of the different sexual orientations, as well as the transgender community. Everyone has a different opinion on all three of these topics and no one seems to want to talk about it, which is why I applaud my classmates for initiating a discussion. I think that these three people, along with the ones helping them, are going to provide a much-needed wake up call to some of the people in our school and community. I haven't gotten the opportunity to pitch my project to the class yet, and I'm kind of thankful. The more I think about my topic of "plastic pollution in the environment", the more doubtful I become about my ability to really make something out of it. Yes, I am passionate about our oceans and the thousands of ecosystems they contain, and yes, I do think they should be protected. I just don't know if plastic pollution is something that I would consider "personal". However, mental illness is. Mental illness is another issue people don't like to talk about and often sweep under the rug, and to me, that IS heartbreaking. So, instead of collaborating with an organization to keep plastic out of our oceans, I'm going to focus on mental illness among adolescents. I'm not sure what my end product is going to be because I can't expect teenagers to talk about being diagnosed with depression or dealing with an eating disorder on camera, but I have some time to figure that part out. My classmates really inspired me to put myself out there and talk about something that makes people, including myself, uncomfortable sometimes.