The older I get, the more and more I feel that anything is possible. I feel like that limitless sense of wonder and acceptance, usually reserved for children is expanding instead of slipping away. And maybe that's how it is more often than I know. This isn't what I thought growing up would be like though. I'm glad my perceptions were wrong.
A few days ago I had a scary movie night with a friend and our conversation worked its way to the subject of "intelligent life", and the probability of its existence. This question has always baffled me, not in the sense of a "yes" or "no", but more of the "how" and "where" aspect. I've always believed in the "yes".
After taking Astronomy last year I have a better framework to understand my reasons for saying yes. I know I've ranted a bit about Astronomy before, but, what an interesting, mindblowing class. So, here's how I see it, the closest star to us is the Sun, which is 93 million miles away. The closest star beyond that is 4.3 light years. A light year is the distance light can travel in a year. In 8 minutes light can travel 93 million miles, in a year....so much farther. Every single other star that you see in the night sky other than these two, are farther away than 4.3 light years, some significantly so. My point is that the Universe is a HUGE place and the idea that we are alone in this infinitely large expanse is, frankly, preposterous to me and much more unsettling than the notion that we are not.
In one of our lectures my Professor showed a slide of a picture featuring hundreds of galaxies and I thought to myself, "I wonder if somewhere in this picture, in one of these galaxies there are beings, like me". Then I had a mental image of others looking at a picture like I was looking at, containing the milky way and wondering if somewhere in that picture in one of those galaxies, there was life.
The more and more I think about this the more likely it seems to me (not necessarily the mental image bit, but the rationale bit).
Switching gears, I just checked my grades for roughly, the thirtieth time in the past three days and they are finally(!) all posted. I somehow managed to get an A in the one class that I was really unsure about and finished the take home final essay for about an hour before it was due. I'm not complaining though, not at all. Just a little shocked.
Also, I really want to take Sign Language next semester, but I've already registered for 4 classes and 5 just seems like a lot. Three of the four classes I've registered for are either essential to my major or the teaching program. The one class I feel I could drop is comparative politics, which I thought would be really interesting and fun. I'm not quite sure what to do. Thoughts?
New Years' Resolution #1: I will update my blog more often. It will happen.
Also, this website is pretty awesome.
