Although I hated the thought of living together with these insects, I would wake up each morning excited to see how the caterpillars have evolved overnight. Even the mere sight of seeing the caterpillars eat from the leaves evoked a joyous sensation that I was doing something that would help the environment.

I decided to plant native plants in my backyard instead of a lawn. I plan to replace the berm in front of my house with flox, a native ground cover sometime soon as well. The Monarchs Matter Summer Program and a lot of the work at ReWild in general really inspired me to try and help the environment...

I always thought they were "untouchable," because my whole life I was told I cannot hold them. Now I know it is possible...