Wrap-up

written by Leon, Mitchell and Justin

In a blink of an eye, our week in London has come to a close. Each and every member of our team is going home with life-changing memories. From the streets, to the sites, to the science, no part of our trip was done for naught. In just one week, we immersed ourselves in the culture of London, learned about Anemone Pulsatilla, engaged in field work with world-famous scientists, (some of us) visited the burial site of Janet Erskine Stuart, and so many other things. Through these experiences, we bonded closer and closer together, not only as a class, but as friends. As the old saying goes, though, “all good things must come to an end.”

However, our team begs to differ. From our experiences this week, our interest in the field of botany/ecology has soared to new heights. We are excited to learn not only how plants affect us, but how we humans can positively affect the earth around us. In our minds, this trip to London was only the beginning of the road; we are all very excited for the upcoming two-year course.

To conclude, our group would first like to extend a special thank-you to Mr. Farrell, Ms. Simpson, and Ms. Yeh for accompanying us on this trip; we greatly appreciate how you made the “wise freedom” aspect of this journey tangible and evident. To Mr. Helms, we are very excited to study botany/ecology with you the next two years. We were all saddened that you were unable to come with us to London, but we thank you for giving us this little taste of what we will shortly be diving into. We would also like to recognize Mrs. Saltveit, Dr. Krejcarek, and the SSH community for supporting us throughout this whole process. Also, we thank you for letting us use this blog to share our thoughts and feelings about the trip. Our team would also like to thank Dr. Bruce Pavlik, Dr. Lisbeth Louderback, Dr. Sarah Barlow, Dr. Sara Oldfield, Dr. Bryn Dentinger, and Lawrence Trowbridge for making our trip such a great learning experience. We appreciate how you made your profound information so clear and concise. Finally, to our parents, thank you for providing each one of us with much-needed financial and moral support. We all deeply appreciate the lengths you went through to allow us go to London.

Without every single one of your individual efforts, this experience would not have been possible. Once again, we thank you for such a memorable experience.