One in the Same

As our colloquium class began on Wednesday afternoon, I remember freaking out as Dave lectured us about how we would need to have ten blog posts by Friday. Now, I was not freaking out completely because I had procrastinated on actually finding something to write about, nor was I freaking out because I had forgotten completely about the assignment, but rather I was freaking out because the idea of making my own natural history post seemed impossible. During the rest of our Wednesday class time, I sat in the grass trying to find what it was I was going to write about. As we discussed Sharon L. Rose’s book, A Natural History of Minto Brown Island Park, I began to feel worried about how I was going to be able to write a natural history report that people would want to read in forty years. I could barely even read her entries without either becoming confused or bored. As I sat, my mind and eyes would wander away from the conversation and notice a wasp flying around the grass. Initially, I thought maybe this wasp is looking for a flower, however none were found within this grassy patch. Next, I saw the wasp search elsewhere. It flew around Josh’s foot, but then it suddenly found something even better than a flower. Like a treasure chest found at the X, this wasp found Carmelle’s Cheese Its. Then I saw an insect that on first glance appeared to be a fellow wasp, but then I came to wonder what if my initial judgment of this creature was wrong? Therefore, I looked again! This time I referenced back to the identification facts I learned in seventh grade. The shape of the body of this specific specimen did not appear to have the split up body type that the order of bees and ants, Hymenoptera, typically have. Through reasoning, I concluded that this had to be a fly posing as a bee to scare away predators. Suddenly though, my specimen flew away. Maybe, I got to close. Incidents like this just leave me to wonder how different are all the specimen when simply from a glance they can barely be told apart? Really are all species one in themselves or are we all the same? Isn’t it true that every type of species have families and homes? Similarities! Everything is a part of nature isn’t it? So, essentially where do differences really come from? Yes, I won’t deny the fact that there are differences, but why is it that differences are what we focus on rather than similarities? For instance, every college wants this idea of supposed diversity, but what makes someone more diverse in comparison to someone else? Isn’t it the fact that everyone is similar in some way that makes life so much more interesting? Similarities allow everyone to relate. Indeed, if everyone were exactly the same life would be pretty boring, but if everyone was in actuality completely different than no one would or could communicate with each other because relations would be impossible. So, essentially how different or how similar is every species on this earth?