I remember when I was in high school and taking the calculus exam. The tension was high. It was the mother of all calculus exams, the exam in which your score was summed up as one, two, three, four or five, with five being the highest score you could get. It was the AP Calculus exam. I was in the open section and felt good about what I was doing. I was solving the problem by even humming a song to myself. I could hear people in the stands cheering for me. I was almost done when, to my horror, I realized I had made a horrible mistake. I started to panic. Time was running out. The exam proctor had told me that there were only 10 minutes left and I was starting to sweat. My heart was pounding, my vision was blurry. Then I remember I had a pencil with an eraser. I turned that pencil around so that the eraser was pointing directly at the paper and the lead was pointing toward the ceiling and I erased my mistake like no man had erased a mistake on an exam before. Soon my error disappeared and I was able to write the correct answer. A few months later, I got my score. I had passed the exam. The pencil had once again saved the day and I began to appreciate and love the pencil. Am I different from other humans on this planet? I doubt it. Just as the pencil has benefited me during this exam, the pencil has been an integral part of people's lives since its birth. Although there are colored pencils and mechanical pencils, one pencil always seems to appear whenever there is a need to write something: the wooden pencil. However, most people don't realize that the wooden pencil has a history, is factory-made, and has environmental effects. After reading this essay, you will develop a d...... middle of paper ......s.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm>.9. Manetti, Michelle. “Gardening idea suggests using pencil shavings to help your plants grow.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, June 12, 2013. Web. April 23, 2014. .10. Martin, Doug. “List of manufacturers.” List of manufacturers. NP, 2012. Web. April 23, 2014. .B. Books11. Price, Jennifer. Flight Maps: Encounters with Nature in Modern American Culture. New York: Basic, 1998. Print.12. Warren, Louis S. American Environmental History. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2003. Print.C. Course material13. “Colonial Environments,” HIST 334, NJIT, lecture, 01/30/1414. “The CONSERVATION MOVEMENT,” HIST 334, NJIT, Conference, 3/6/1415. “Cars and the REFORMING of NATURE, HIST 334, NJIT, Conference, 3/27/14