Nick - Allow Me To Introduce You

Today I would like everybody to meet a few of my friends.

Ever since I was little, I really liked plants and fish. For some reason the idea of something that lives and grows in my room was just cool to me.

Over here you can see Cappella (the large one). He was the second plant I ever owned. And on the far left we have Christmas Cactus, which my parents got me for Christmas. He is in a pot that I painted myself and he grows beautiful flowers when it's cold out. Next to him is Lucky Bamboo. Olivia got me Lucky Bamboo. He didn't have any of those upshoots back then. And then the tiny one on the right is Lola. You can't see her very well but she's really pretty.

This here is Oyster Plant. I don't know why it's called that. It was really tiny when it got it, and I love the silver in the leaves. You can kind of see some other plants poking into the picture there, one of which isn't doing so great.

I was never a huge fan of furry animals. I had a cat, our family has had some dogs over the years, but plants and fish aquariums are more like an entire ecosystem than a single organism. You get to see fish interact with each other, and watch as everything in the tank takes an established place. And plants grow and take different shapes over the years until it's hard to believe it was once a tiny sprout. That, to me, is really really cool.

This here is Firefish. Firefish's story is a very sad one. I ordered him from the fish store, and when I went to pick him up the guy at the fish store told me that he had ordered two instead of just one for me since they are happier in pairs. I only had enough money for one of them so I just took the one and went home. I started feeling really guilty so I went back the next day and bought its friend too. They were really happy for a few weeks and then this one killed the other one, and I still can't imagine why. I guess he's just not a very nice guy. Anyway, now he's alone in the tank with a terrible crab named Giovanni, who wouldn't let me take a picture of him. My fish aquarium could use some cleaning and is kind of lonely. I need to get out to the fish store. My dad has a huge and vibrant one downstairs.

Lastly, we have these two guys. First we have my vine. Vine was my first plant, and is in a pot I painted. He started from a sprout from my mom's vine plant. I think he's actually some kind of pothos. Oddly, my mom's vine is red but mine grew green. Then we have Coral Cactus. He's actually a succulent, not a cactus. Olivia got him for me and I can't get over how cool he looks. He really does look a lot like coral.

These aren't all of my plants and fish in my house of course, but I don't want to bore anybody. This is just a small sampling that I've taken pictures of.

I feel like having plants and fish my whole life has given me a hard-to-describe quality of understanding and learning from nature. I would like to think that I've gained a kind of respect for the way that different organisms interact and grow. I've learned a lot from my plants and fish, and I hope you start a fish tank for your kids someday too.

-Nick.