Our Never-ending Desire by Abigail

Our Never-ending Desire by Abigail - July 2019 Scholarship Essay

Have you ever looked up at the stars? Maybe just in passing, a quick glance to humble yourself. Or maybe a long captivated stare, just admiring all of the universe’s beauty. Or maybe a quisitive pause, contemplating what might be in store for us. When I look at the stars I look back. I wonder what the sky must’ve looked like millions of years ago with no lights to block the speckles. I wonder how bright the sky must have been with a golden full moon rising over the hills, or how immense the darkness was on a moonless night the milky way a shadowed line scraping through the blackness. I wonder what stories the dinosaurs could tell about that fateful day when their casket came cascading from the spinning constellations above them.
For thousands of years we have gazed into the depths of the heavens, amazed by its strong grace and power. We have been captivated by its colorful clouds of life giving birth to diverse planets, moons and stars, but our universe has a dark side. Out past comfort of our little blue ball and the layers of gas and dust there is chaos. Swirling galaxies being eaten alive, massive explosions and collisions sending debris light years away, comets and asteroids whizzing in every direction. The calm glowing spotlights that captivate us from down there in reality are sending out scorching UV rays set across a deep black pristine horizon riddled with miscellaneous chunks of previous planets and brimming with the merciless elements of deep space. Five layers between us and the unpredictable and frightening universe, but we still explore.
We travel deep into the immense darkness of space because of our curiosity and will to learn more. We defy the odds and risk everything to see what is beyond the horizon. We challenge beliefs because we have questions we want answers to. This is the basis of education: a driving will to learn more fueled by curiosity and passion. Wanting to learn more is the foundation of our society. If Issac Newton hadn’t tirelessly pondered and experimented on the movement of objects, would we have the same knowledge of physics and the world around us? If Steve Jobs hadn’t been fascinated and driven to learn more about computers and how they worked, would we have the same technological advances that we use in our lives everyday? If Galileo Galilei hadn’t looked to the stars and wondered what was out there, would we have the same understanding of not only our world but how it was created? This basic drive to learn more, ask questions and ponder gives way to a better and brighter future.
As humans, we will continue to explore and break through barriers in the name of education. We will continue to discover and learn more because it is our means of survival. We need to know as much as we can to best insure the continuation of our species. But if our time runs out, I wonder if the next creatures to dominate the world will have the same drive to learn as we do. Or will they just go about their lives unaware of the miles of ancient stories sitting just beneath their feet waiting to be discovered. Forgotten, or remembered if the sunsets on our last day, it will rise on the morning of the next. The planets will keep orbiting our star, the moon will keep orbiting our planet. And there will still be countless things to be discovered, just waiting for an eager soul with an unwavering drive, a fire of curiosity and untapped passion to reveal them.