Uni Nonfiction Blog (Miriam)

Crash Course in Ecology It might sound weird, but your school is an ecosystem. No, really, not just in a metaphorical way: your school is a scientific ecosystem. Sound strange? Well, maybe it is. But let me explain what an ecosystem is first. According to Merriam-Webster , an ecosystem is a biological community of organisms and their interactions with their environment (“Ecosystem”). If you apply that definition to a school, it’s easier to see the student body as a community of organisms interacting within the school’s environment. I’m particularly interested in college ecosystems at the moment, because as a junior, I know that I’ll be applying to colleges this coming summer and fall. I’ve been thinking a lot about what type of college environment I want, and I’ve realized that a big part of that decision revolves around my intended major. I’ve narrowed down my possible career interests to something in biology, environmental science, or ecology, but I immediately realized that I knew...

       If I could relive any moment for the first time all over again, it would be hitting my first ever home run. After having played softball since I was nine years old, I finally hit my first out-of-the-park homer about six weeks ago in Olney, Illinois. When I first started playing softball, fielding and pitching came somewhat naturally to me, but I would strike out nearly every time I was up to bat. In seventh grade I started taking hitting lessons along with my weekly pitching lessons, and I worked earnestly on my hitting skills, but my progress felt really slow and I mostly resorted to bunting during middle school. Then, when I transferred to Uni from UMS and gave up having a school team to play with, I joined a travel softball team for the first time and started to gradually improve my hitting. The last few years I’ve become more of a contact hitter, hitting singles to get on base and advance runners, but I was still nowhere near being able to hit a ball out o...