They take over the lives of those who understand their ugliness.  When I began learning about invasive species, also known as introduced species, nonnatives, or exotic species gone horribly wrong, in my freshman NREM 101 course with Dr. Gregg, I had no idea the impact they would have on my life in the subsequent years.  That year I began my campus job with the Ball State Field Station for Environmental Education Center, under the supervision of John Taylor, a man who covets the relatively new National Parks Service position of managing all the invasive plants in the eastern parks, a daunting task no doubt.  Trust me…after working a couple years with John Taylor, you understand just how annoying the plants become when your job is to pick, spray, or hack those plants for eight hours a day.  Then I took a summer job/NREM internship one year with the Bureau of Water Quality, where we learned about the invasive fish species that also wreaked havoc on the natural ecosystem of the White River, namely carp because of their large capacity to consume.  We somehow didn't fight to protect the carp as much as we did the species that ranked a bit higher on the Index of Biological Integrity scale.  Then I returned to the classroom only to learn more about nonnative species in the tree world in a forestry class.  This past summer, I learned the plants of coastal northern California in the Marin Headlands and taught my camp kids about their consequences.  Finally, last weekend I was on a highway in Alabama and my eyes could only perceive the constant wall of kudzu that was killing its tree hosts slowly.  In short, being a part of the NREM experience, both in class and on the job, has transformed a once carefree stroll in the wilderness into a semi-compulsive desire to rediscover the original wilderness before mankind's oft-intentional (and oft not) "redecorating" commenced.