My life has been considerably like a mosaic. As a baby, I’ve been raised in a proud Taiwan tradition (proud each in phrases of its Chinese language language heritage and custom). But I’ve a household who drastically values unbiased thought and thus uncovered me to a myriad of environments and various cultures. I spent the bulk of my elementary in Canada the place my goals and aspirations took form. The free and idyllic ambiance there (each in class and in social conditions) fostered my risk-taking and inquisitive spirit. Even after I had gone again to Taiwan, the picture of Canada was planted in my thoughts. Although I really like my residence nation, rising up there was not what I actually wished. In school, college students had been simply anticipated to “observe the instructions.” That was not me. I wished to doubt, to Question Assignment, and to be skeptical even in the direction of authority. Curiosity is in my nature.
I couldn’t Help myself.
It was then I made a decision to coming to the States in hopes of higher pursuing my goals and determining my life. Right here, I’ve seized each alternative to broaden my horizons and work for the profit of the bigger group. I flew to the Wonderful Assembly at Las Vegas, a conference of some of the world’s finest science communicators, and conversed in regards to the significance of science literacy in right now’s society. I traveled to the stone coasts of Vancouver and labored alongside a dozen whale researchers, serving to me acknowledge the fragility and tentativeness of life on Earth. I attended Secular Humanism gatherings and geared up myself with the weapons of cause towards the nonsensical and the irrational—in the end, to safeguard freedom of inquiry and investigation from faith and superstition. Throughout these experiences, I had a plethora of alternatives to discover my internal self. I found qualities which can be harmonious with those who I worth and place in excessive esteem: appreciation of magnificence, sincere inquiry, and love for the reality.
Within the center of highschool, my exploratory journey continued. Carrying a deep will to Question Assignment, I launched into a philosophical exploration fairly not like these throughout my childhood occasions. Why am I right here? What am I right here for? What’s the which means and function of existence? This time, my automobile was my thoughts, and my voyage was one of self-discovery. My love of considering brave questions ultimately (or maybe inevitably) led my winding path to gates of science. Beforehand blinded by the minutiae of each day life, science opened my eyes and my senses to the bigger common actuality outdoors of my very own little shell. The scientific outlook of the universe shattered my self-conceived self-importance in each day life. It unveiled a world far past my wildest childhood imaginations—the vastness of astronomical house, the immensity of geological time, and the elegant complexity and richness of life on Earth. Give it some thought! Our brains often is the solely objects in all the universe succesful of considering its personal existence! From my lonely level in cosmos, a sudden consciousness of the immense inexplicability of the universe dawned on me. It was then T.S. Eliot’s phrases wafted a brand new profound private which means, “We will not stop from exploration, and the top of all our exploring can be to reach the place we began, and know the place for the primary time.”
Typically in my sleepless nights, every time existential doubts threaten to come back again and hang-out me, I might lie on the grass on my yard and silently stare skywards. I might sit on the sting of the pond because the Milky Method progressively comes into view, extending throughout the sky and slowly claiming the evening. The clear waters replicate each the shimmering brilliance and the immensity of the heavens. Infinity above. Eternity beneath. Whereas pondering the deepest questions of human existence, I might lie there, enchanted by Andromeda, Gemini, Orion, and tearful with the unheard symphony of the cosmic concord. I might set my thoughts free and gaze throughout the millennia to view humanity residing in house, having constructed a wonderful civilization among the many stars. Think about! They may have glimpsed innovations, concepts, and worlds undreamt of in our current day.
Though I could not dwell to witness that monumental second, I take consolation in the truth that I’ve the potential to comprise a small however essential function on this timeless pursuit of information and knowledge—the uniquely human endeavor we name science. Through the years, I’ve come to comprehend that science is itself a “voyage of self-discovery”—though my lifelong seek for who I’m and the way I match into the world has come to an finish, I’ve simply begun the everlasting journey of discovering out what it really means to be human. In understanding the world round us, we’re in flip trying to find our place within the universe. I’m an explorer nonetheless. At occasions, Carl Sagan’s immortal phrases ring in my thoughts, “The scientific enterprise spans the generations; we bear in mind those that ready the way in which, seeing for them additionally.” Thus in my time and my technology, I carry a particular duty to additional our understanding of the cosmos and ourselves. And in doing so, I’ll contribute my half and advance one other step on humanity’s ladder reaching for the celebs.
