Imagine, It’s 1 AM on a dark night, quiet and peaceful. You put on a sweatshirt and shoes and head out into your backyard. You place your soft and fuzzy blanket on the gentle grass. You rest your body down and look up. You see tiny insignificant specks of light dancing above you, bright balls of fire connected by a string to form constellations, you see auroras blanketing the night sky, filling it with color and life, you see our galaxy looming, watching over all that there is to see. You feel at peace, you feel safe, you feel at home. Now imagine if you could do this as much as you wanted and get paid for it. This is my dream job, this is a stay-at-home astronomer. 

Even though a job where you get paid to sleep outside isn’t incredibly realistic, studying the stars and their patterns is a real job. An astronomer is a scientist who investigates the cosmos. Astronomy is a branch of natural science that investigates celestial objects and phenomena. It explains their origin and evolution using mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets are among the objects of interest. Supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation are all examples of relevant phenomena. Astronomy, in general, is the study of everything that originates outside of the Earth's atmosphere. (Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.)

Space has always had a massive influence on me. Even as a child I would spend hours every weekend watching videos on YouTube about the cosmos on my iPad. I have no idea why, but I have always had a fascination with knowing what lies beyond our solar system. It seems awe-inspiring to discover and understand the mysteries of something greater, more significant than us tiny specks of stardust. 

Even in school today, I apply space in my learning. In my creative writing class, I have the opportunity to write a bunch of creative pieces and space is a topic I often write about. Just recently we developed sijo writing. This was one of my pieces.

“

Luminous curtains of purples, blues, greens, and pinks dance above

the frozen tundra below. The radiance and grandeur of their

hues bewitched and overflowed me with wonder and reverence.

“

For the majority of my life, I have thought that space would be my end all be all. An easy career choice for me. And now, as a senior in high school, having applied to 5 colleges, my dream of being an astronomer is still at the forefront of my list. My goal, looking into the future, is to work at one of the big companies related to space, like NASA or Space X. Being an astronomer is about having curiosity. I genuinely have a wonder, an itch, I feel the need to see what lies beyond our small pocket of the galaxy. I hope that I can fulfill that need someday, I want space to be a part of my life until the day that I too, join the stars in the sky.