Healing Gardens

This is me:

These are the plants I have in my "life" (aka dorm room) right now:

And I'm only showing you this because I used to think that I cannot keep a plant alive no matter how much I try. Then I got my jade plant as goodbye gift by two valued friends who knew that I didn't have a "green thumb." I couldn't let this plant die, simply because it was a thoughtful gift by friends. And it didn't. At first the leaves turned heart-shaped and dark, but when I put it by the window it went back to normal and it's thriving. Since then, I've rescued the polka dot plant from my roommate (it was practically dead), and got the pothos from academic advising (with two leaves, which was last October, it now has 7 leaves and keeps growing!). The aloe is the latest addition. It was an off-shoot of a friend's aloe. I don't know what kind of aloe it is, there are too many out there, but if you know, tell me!

While these are all houseplants and not in their native or natural environment, they have taught me an important lesson. Plants are not just plants. These green "kids" of mine have broken the barrier of the "green blur," as Sebastian called it in his reflection essay (I think it's the perfect way to describe the kind of mentality I had).
I used to think I was just an animal lover, but maybe I'm more of a life lover, loving all things living. Probably one of the reasons why I love the study of biology, even though as an academic subject it often tends to be very disconnected from what is actually being studied.

About myself:

I was born in a town south of Munich, Germany. My parents divorced when I was a kid so I moved around a couple of times, living almost in the dead center of Munich for a while, and in a town outside the city at other times. When we moved to Sammamish, I was 17 and finished the last two years of High School here.

Then I started at Central Washington University, but with no direction, so I was caught between my interests of physics, philosophy, math, art, psychology, astronomy, music, and a whole bunch of other things. I left the school mostly because of that lack of direction and took two quarters off volunteering at a local thrift store. I started to feel the overwhelming urge to go back to school and study my newly found interest in nutrition.

I then enrolled in Shoreline Community College (which meant 4 hours on a bus every day), but didn't end up studying nutrition. I fell in love with the study of biology through a course taught by an Evergreen alumni (it seems odd writing this now). I was already vegan by that time and really felt like doing more to help the animals. Combining the two interests I decided to head for veterinary school, where I'm still heading today. That desire to help spread to an interest in all things environmental, and some of my friends say I've turned into a complete hippy in the past two years (but what is a hippy really?).

Since coming to the quirky place called Evergreen last September, I feel I've learned more about myself and found a place where my interests are shared, although sometimes I feel like everyone is just preaching to the choir here.

So now I'm here. And hoping to break the "green blur" into distinguishable and appreciated beings.