Upon entering the "jungle", i felt like i was walking through a portal into another world. The gentle trickle of a waterfall and the searing heat are the first things I notice. Walking in from the cold Iowa winter is like a mini vacation into a tropical rainforest. Giant green plants are towering over head, and even though the greenhouse is pretty small, I feel like i could get lost in the exotic plant life. As I walk into a side room, there is an average looking plant that I almost overlook. When i just glance at this plant I see the relatively normal big green leaves; nothing special. I start to move on to more interesting flora. As i start to walk away i do a double take; sprouting from the heart of the average looking leaves comes bright magenta feelers. Like pink caterpillars taking a nap on the broad leaves. I am no scientist, but I am not sure what evolutionary advantage these feelers serve. That is what makes this plant so interesting. This plant from exotic Malaysia makes you take a closer look. It doesn't shout weirdness like other rainforest plants, instead the weirdness is more subtle. This flora requires a few seconds of your time for you to really see what makes this plant so unique.

What reading have you enjoyed the most?

My favorite reading so far has probably been Teddy Roosevelt's speech at the Grand Canyon. I really liked how Teddy was traveling to a lot of different places, so he really didnt have a speech prepard when he came to the Grand Canyon. He just really said what he felt. He talked about how we need to keep it how it is, because mankind cannot improve upon it. That reminds me of how they wanted to shine flashing lights up on the falls, it just would ruin the landscape. I like how he said we need to keep it and protect it for our children, and their children. I like how even in the early 1900's, he still had the same idea alot of us have today about nature.

Snapshot of Environmental Experience

The basement is dark and barely used. Old random toys cluttered the cement floor; the only light comes from a small light bulb dangling from the ceiling. It flickers once then goes out. The little girl with us starts to cry. She's crying because of the dark. We try to calm her down, only so that we can hear the howls of the wind outside. We can hear it banging on the windows, trying to get it. We stop talking and just sit there praying. We don't even whisper, we are afraid the funnel will hear us and chose our house. Besides the wind, we can hear the lonely alarm blaring it's warning; tornado. This one seems closer than it's ever been. We can hear what sounds like a train coming for us. The house seems to be shaking, the wind is trying to rip it out of the ground, but it refuses to budge. The harder it shakes, the more scared we become. It is our only protection from the nightmare that's trying to find us. We cannot fight this intruder; we can only hide and hope it doesn't find us here.

What I would photograph to represent my hometown:

I would take my camera out to the street where I grew up. It's what you would imagine; an all-American neighborhood. Standing from my driveway you can look down the cul-de-sac and see how all the homes haven't changed since the 15 years I've known this street. Sure maybe the Smiths got new shutters, or the Jacobson's cemented their driveway. But it still feels exactly how I remember it. Giant oak trees line the street, and in the fall, the red and golden leaves look like a picture from a postcard. There's the handprints me and my sister put in the cement while it was drying, you can see where we wrote our names; it takes you back to that moment thirteen years ago. From here you can see the lake and the woods behind my neighbor's house. It was where we used to build forts, climb trees, and be complete tomboys. As you approach my front door, you can see it there; the door mat that says "Home sweet Home."

Response to Terry Tempest Williams-Gardening

One ritual my family had is that me and my mother would garden together. In reality, it was more like she was gardening while I messed around. I didn't start out wanting to plant flowers and vegetables, and I didn't want to get dirty working in the soil. So at the beginning, I mostly just hung out and talked to my mom while she gardened. She didn't have a real garden, so we took a bunch of random pots, filled them with seeds, and set them out on the back deck. This to us was gardening. These times when we would "garden" together wasn't about needing homegrown vegetables, it was more of just something for us to do together. Through gardening with my mom, I gained a new appreciation for nature and the environment. Most of the plants didn't turn out how they were supposed to, so they didn't look perfect. But it was the fact that everything we grew had a memory attatched, and that made nature so much more interesting to me.

This is an image of my hometown: St. Louis, Missouri.

This photo represents all the people who live in the St. Louis area. You can see all the lights in the city buildings, and just looking at these lights you can imagine all the people going about their lives when this picture was taken. This picture also shows the Arch, and when people think of St. Louis one thing that always comes to mind is the arch. Because St. Louis is considered "The Gateway to the West", the arch represents how this city is that gateway. One thing that this picture does not show, is all the culture that comes with a city with three major sports teams: the Blues, the Cardinals, and the Rams. Because all these teams have their games in the area where this picture was taken, on game days the city is transformed into a huge tailgating party. The streets fill to the brim with people, all in their gameday colors. It turns the city into one big happy family, because it gives us all something in common. Something else you don't see in this picture is the poverty. St. Louis is a major city, so it does have some bad areas, but you don't see the poverty when you look at this picture.

My Hut "Serenity"

My hut is on a hillside in the woods, overlooking a lake in the northern part of Missouri. There is a wall of windows to the west, so I can watch the sun set from my bed. And the door faces east, which is also the direction of the lake. The inside of the hut is reminiscent of a small english cottage. There's a stone fireplace, dark cherry wood floors, and lots of mismatched fabrics and antique furniture. The outside of he hut is all stone, and there's a small garden near the front full of lilac, roses, and orchids. The hut is mostly made of aged stone and dark cherry wood. I would make a mug of hot chocolate and read "Pride & Prejudice" sitting on the bay window overlooking the woods and the water. Over the fireplace i would have pictures of my family members so that i can always be near them. I would play country and rock music in my hut. Mostly Chris Daughtry and Taylor Swift because music by them makes me happy. Also, there would always be music playing in my hut. The smell that would be prominent in my hut would be apple cider, because it reminds me of christmas and comfort. I would bring my twin sister to my hut because I think she would appreciate the hut as much as me. If I could raise the dead I would bring back Audrey Hepburn so we could talk about "Breakfast at Tiffany's" which is one of my favorite musicals.

1) I would display my book collection, because I love reading and I read certain books over and over again depending on my mood.

2)A picture of me and my sister that we got taken at Glamour Shots together.

3)A silver necklace my grandmother gave to me.

What someone would discover is that I was born in the wrong time period. I think I'm better suited for living in one of Jane Austen's books. What would probably most interest someone is all the books I own. I own a lot of books, and I love a variety of genres; from Harry Potter to Nicholas Sparks. I would serve velveeta macaroni and cheese, because it is one of my favorite foods and one of the best things ever created. I would display the plane tickets from when my family went to L.A, because it was one of the best vacations ever. The one photograph I would include of myself would be my senior picture, because it's a really good picture of me. The photograph of another I would include would be a picture from a few summers ago of my friends and me at the lake. And the one thing I would include that I made would be a scarf my aunt taught me how to make.