Cleaning Up
By Serena Sue Carlson
Serena’s essay, one of the winners of Changing Times youth writing contest, responds to the prompt, “Share with us your creative climate future. Imagine it is 2070. Using story and imagination, tell us what your community looks like and how your community is responding.” Serena shared her story, “Cleaning Up” at the 2023 live Missoula Climate Stories storytelling event.
As Cecilia waited for her dad to take his Mancala turn, she thought about how Grandma
could see the mountains from this window when she was a girl. Now, the view was just haze
and her grandma was in the hospital really sick.
Doctors thought that her grandma was outside too much and breathed in too many of
the nearby factory chemicals. Now that her grandma was not in Cecilia’s house, there wasn’t
nearly as much laughing. Cecilia’s grandma always had a joke or interesting story to share.
Most of the stories were ones about hiking to glaciers and counting mountain goats in Glacier
National Park. Now when Cecilia visited Glacier, all the glaciers were melted, and it would be
really lucky just to see one goat.
“Hey, where did you go? It is your turn,” Cecilia’s dad asked.
She moved her stones, but didn’t get very many because her mind wasn’t on the game.
She was distracted by Fritz’s sweeping. Fritz did all the chores her grandma talked about doing
every day after school when she was a kid.
“Hey dad, I was thinking about Grandma and all her stories. That got me started on the
chemicals that possibly got grandma sick. What if all our neighbors used our Fritz robots to do
things like pick up trash, fix chemical pipes, and make sure the air around the factories stays
clean. I would not mind sweeping if it meant that Grandma can be outside in the fresh air!”
Serena Carlson live at the 2023 Missoula Climate Stories event
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Serena is 11 years old and goes to Edgerton Elementary in Kalispell. Sue is one of the winner of the Changing Times youth writing contest in 2023. Her middle name, Sue, comes partially from her grandma, and partially after Sue Lake in Glacier National Park. Glacier has been a big part of Serena’s life so far, spending time there every year of her life.
