Due to a registration issue, I was not assigned to work with my beloved spiders, but instead with the less interesting plants alternative. More than a little bummed, I faced the fate of the boredom that would approach. But the big surprise for me was how interesting the plants could be.

We didn’t walk too far before we started to pick out plants and learn about their underlying intricacies. Plants that seemed common and dull each had an interesting quality to them when viewed through the eyes of an expert. I don’t think we walked more than 20 feet because we kept finding new plants to ask about. We learned something interesting about every plant in a five foot radius, and it took us the entire period to do so. One plant had a seed pod that explode when you touched it. One plant was similar to what they put in Absinthe. One plant, if eaten, would cause a mitogenic breakdown, essentially cancer.

This made me realize just how interesting and important even the smallest section of nature can be. I shouldn’t discount New York’s parks just because they aren’t forests. A lot can be packed into small spaces, and what appears mundane may actually be very special.

This made me think that scientist, at least the good ones, give everything a chance to surprise them. They don’t assume right off the bat that a specimen will behave this way or that way. They follow the process without judgement and see what will come their way. Listening to our leader talk about his work in the field, it made me a little jealous that I wasn’t the one discovering new plants. And that a big deal, coming from a spider lover.