While I sat besides my stream, I found serenity. The birds chirped all around, squirells scuffled through the leaves, all while the water ran past me, burbling away. I enjoyed my time there. Although it is very close to so many people, the trees, plants, and natural decline prevent me from seeing the world of UVM. Although I could not see the red brick buildings I am so familiar with, I could see the signs of UVM in my small secluded habitat. Cans laying about, a chip bag waving in the stream, oil from the parking lot accumulating on the water’s surface. I tried to remove what foreign objects I could, but I knew that ultimately, the high concentration of people at our school made it hard for this small ecosystem to survive. Since the last visit I made, there are many more leaves on the ground, mostly from trees but also from shrubbery. The only plants that are still green are the grasses that lay next to the stream and the pine sapplings which lay in the understory of the nearby forest.
