One Young World (OYW) is a youth summit that brings together young people under the age of 30 from around the world. From September 5th to 8th, the 2022 event was held in Manchester, England, in a hybrid of face-to-face and online sessions. During the summit, delegates listened to presentations on the main stage and took part in discussions at workshops. The goals of this summit were to share the voices of young people around the world and to discuss issues of global concern, and to foster connections.

The most attractive thing about attending OYW was the warmth and passion of young people from all over the world. In order for people to connect and innovate on a global scale, I learned that it is important to warmly accept and collaborate with one another regardless of background or ability. One American participant from Algeria, who became my friend during the conference, told me like,

“Even if it is your native language, you do not speak the language with perfect grammar. I would rather listen to the words of someone who tries to communicate even if he or she is not good at speaking English, than someone who speaks beautifully. I just  enjoy and need to talk to many people and gain new perspectives.”

Throughout the convention, I spoke directly with a total of more than 50 people and listened to more than 30 speeches. The people I met during the conference were all full of enthusiasm and had goals of the ideal world and dreams that they wanted to achieve. It was a valuable experience not only to have conversations with them, but also to be there and feel their passion. Furthermore, the conversations with the participants from around the world broadened and organized my own thoughts and made me feel a strong desire to take action. I realized that it is my role to tell the voices of young people around the world to people inside and outside of the university and to take action. I would like to tell the students of Kanazawa University the significance and fun of participating in person.