Lynsey Addario tells the story of her grandmother’s missed chance in love to demonstrate the choice that she and everybody must make in life: settle for safe and content, or take a risk and chase after passion. Addario’s choice is not about love, though, but about photography or a normal life. Where her grandmother chooses the safe route, Addario takes the leap and follows her love of photography. Her choice shows the weight Addario puts on her passion- to her, photography is on par with love.

The scene that thematized my passion was an experience of discovery. In theory, I loved space, but I couldn’t experience it. I was limited by light pollution, money, and my own ignorance. This changed In the spring of 2017, when I learned about star parties from my astronomy class in school. Star parties are gatherings of amateur astronomers to share their love of space and their telescopes with each other and the public. Of course, I attended the first one I could find!

What I witnessed there was beyond my wildest dreams. I saw nebulae, globular clusters, binary star systems, planets, and waved at the ISS as it passed overhead. I saw telescopes of every size and type I could imagine. I met people who know the night sky like an old friend, who were what I aspire to be.

That was a night that I will never forget, but what changed me the most was the realization of how easy it was. I didn’t need to road-trip for hours, empty my wallet, or know everything about astronomy. I just drove for 20 minutes and talked to some nice people, and everything I could have wanted was right there.

Space is (for the most part) unreachable, but I know now that experiencing it doesn’t have to be.