At the age of 11, my fascination for the universe arose. I’ve read dozens of books, magazines, articles and watched countless of documentaries about it. And, for a long time, it has been my dream to become involved in either astronomy or astrophysics. Unfortunately, my skills in school for sciences were mediocre (mark 3/C) and my math mediocre to bad (mark 3-5/C-E). My teacher told me that higher grades are necessary, so the only that was left was my fascination and interest. The good news is that it neither slowed my interest down, nor decreased it whatsoever; merely my perspective and future have changed. I assume so, at least.
Now, in my early 20s, I look up to the nightsky and dream how live would be like as a space explorer – having an own spaceship, an endless amount of time to study images, data and much more. As an individual who’s so invested in the universe, I of course began to watch Star Trek and Star Wars. Although the first is more romantic in my view (the human species discovering more and more of our galaxy; good and bad things, new intelligent species, etc.), and also what motivated me to look forward into the future. It may not exactly be like that (especially regarding the Warp-technology and extraterrestial lifeforms visiting us), but it did show a possible bright future one can get excited about.
Then there are beautiful movies like Interstellar – I enjoyed it a lot and, in fact, I write this entry while listening to the soundtrack of this amazing movie. Since Earth is part of the universe, I also watch documentaries about the nature of our planet (how the ecosystem works, why animals evolved like that, the impact of humans on our planet, etc) and try to learn more about the environment and climate. Once you have seen the beauty of our oceans, forests, and other landscapes, you understand that their existence alone is worth protecting. Not to mention that without the animals living there it would be pretty empty, and disastrous for us as the human species.
When talking about humanity, it inevitably leads us to the environmental pollution and exploitation of nature. From Co2-emissions to the extraction of natural resources such as oil – it all negatively impacts the environment and with it the animals and humans who are part of it. Those with a lack of ressources and wealth suffer the most, but it won’t stop there. The more humans advance into nature and come into contact with exotic animals, the more likely the scenario of a virus transmission from one animal species to the other, and finally to us, is. If no precautions are taken, it will have bad consequences for the global community we all are part of.
With all that in mind, we shall now return to the nightsky. There’s no harm in looking up to the star-covered night and let the thoughts flow through one. In our hectic and ever-stressful world there’s always time for calm moments where we can recollect ourselves.
Perhaps, one day we will embrace the calm and thoughtful nature which resides in us. It exists in all of us, and it is possibly the right attitude for a brighter future…
Baroque 