Over the past 2 weeks my family had the opportunity to host Janyl Ramirez in our home. Janyl is 16 and attends the High School for Environmental Studies in NYC . Janyl spent her days in VT writing and working at Shelburne Farms as a scholarship student for a UVM / Shelburne Farms (Marshall Webb) Environmental Writing course and her nights and weekends with the Murphy family, playing games, meeting friends, discovering what younger brothers and sisters are like, climbing Mt. Philo and experiencing real maple syrup. On the last night of her stay, she along with all the other students (mostly UVM undergraduate) shared their reflections. Janyl’s very cool story is below. Enjoy.