Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

I find the vast mysteries of the cosmos to be the most puzzling and engulfing configuration mankind has ever tasked themselves to understand. As children, we have all looked up to the stars, and they have looked down on us, twinkling from trillions of kilometers away. Carl Sagan once wrote: “Our contemplation of the Cosmos stir us – there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height.” Humans were created by the cosmos, striving to figure out why we are here. Thirteen billion years has led to the human species living and thriving on a feeble, watery rock. It is life’s greatest mystery; no one knows how or why we are here. It allows me to ponder questions, from how gravity works to why was I chosen to be conceived. It does not only captivate me, it deprives me of words; a sort of writer’s block that all you can do is be thankful for our existence.

Since my youth, I always dreamed of being an astronaut. Science has always been my STEM passion; any space-related picture book I could get my hands on was a book I would read. By middle school, I became impassioned for astrophysics and all that was related. I dedicated a social media account to science, mainly astronomy and physics and all in between. I became engaged in a community that was teens my age from all over the United States. I found myself dodging homework, and instead dedicating time to connect with people on the app, spending even more time writing science essays that expressed ideas that I wanted to share. I made internet friends with people who had the same interests as I. Instead of feeling secluded, I became one with a social network of science nerds like me. I am still friends with many of these people to this day. They are pursuing the dreams they shared with me when we were just young teens. My love for pondering the sheer humbling and ephemeral existence of humans has only made me want to question more. Questions are promised, but answers are not. Whether I am sitting in class or gazing towards the sky, I lose track of time countlessly.

I find myself not taking life bit by bit, obstacle by obstacle, but consciously reminding myself that we are small fish in the vast cosmic ocean. Whatever life may throw at us, I am comfortable knowing somehow, some way, it was meant for me to overcome. I live my life knowing that I am only served a narrow slice, a fraction of a fraction of time that motivates me to spend it wisely and to my fulfillment. The cosmos humble me; human instinct from the beginning has made our heads point to the sky and our minds embark on a journey to make sense of it all. For me, Carl Sagan, the author of Cosmos, inspired me to learn more about the universe around us. He conveyed to me that there is more to the cosmos than just space and science; it is history along with a dose of mystery and human curiosity. The cosmos let me trace our past, simultaneously allowing me to question the unknown. Getting caught in it all may seem overwhelming; it’s because it is. From the grandeur of the universe to the neurons that drive our brain, each phenomenon holds a seemingly more infinite complexity than before. Humans have taken on the insurmountable task of understanding it all; from an aspiring child to a physicist with a PhD, everyone holds a little spark of curiosity to discover their place in it all.

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This essay was written for my college applications when I was 17.