Just keep striving. Just keep striving. Just keep striving, striving, striving. By Siti Jaafar

Hope everyone got that line from Finding Nemo when Dory sang “Just keep swimming”.

I genuinely love and learnt a lot from this programme, especially in policymaking and diplomacy. Graduated with an English Literature major in Univeristi Brunei Darussalam (UBD) in 2020 made me think I would only end up burying my nose in literature books and research paper analysis of all kinds of genres you can think of. But somehow, I stepped out of my comfort zone in the middle of the pandemic and begun my diplomacy journey (as well as my entrepreneurial journey) to become someone other than my introvert-self—nothing bad, just not comfortable putting myself out there, yet—even when public speaking isn’t my forte. Or programmes like this to expand my network. But I’m glad I joined!

I met many like-minded diplomat friends who share the same passion for advocacies I believe in. Climate change has been the hottest topic for a very long time, and our generation is facing the worst climate crisis, by far. The AASYP Digital Dialogues and the discussions I had with Team Green Recovery opened my eyes to the importance of environmental concerns across ASEAN-Austalia and I hope my op-ed is good enough to influence my readers.

I encourage my fellow Bruneians to join AASYP programmes—worth it!

By Siti Jaafar