I was browsing Reddit when I stumbled across two photos one of Earth viewed from Saturn and of the rolling hills on Mars, they made me think back on the time when I went camping in my trailer in the Poconos. Like those pictures they made me think about how tiny and fragile and tiny Earth was. The tininess of the Earth reminds me of my fears with coming to Kutztown I was and am afraid I will get lost among the thousand of student just like a star floating in space. I was ten on our trip to the trailer in the woods.
My trailer was nestled on a couple acres of land with a few other trailers in the middle of the woods on the outskirts of a town called White Haven. Every trailer was surrounded by trees that towered over us. The “trailer park” was
decrepit and old the newest trailer was from the late 70’s to early 80’s, my family's trailer was an early 60’s parks model that had a broken heater and built in wood cabinets. The park only had running water if you pumped it up from the creek. The only way to get in and out the camping location was to take a hilly dirt road and towards the beginning of the road there was a set of old stairs from the Lehigh Tannery which burnt down in the early 1900’s. Despite all of that we were proud of our little slice of heaven and made sure it did not look decrepit with new grills, lawn furniture, and fresh paint. I returned home from grade school and waited for my dad to get home at 4:30 PM. Once he arrived home I helped him pack the truck because this weekend we were going up the mountains. The two hour drive came and went and when we arrived to White Haven where we grabbed a pizza at the local pizza shop and took it back to the trailer and ate it. After eating we unpacked the truck. I was ten years old and we were deep in the woods of Pennsylvania with a belly full of pizza. "Can we go up the road to the clearing to look at the stars" I asked my father "Sure" He responded So me and my dad walked up the dirt road in the dark to the clearing. We arrived and I looked up and lost my breath it was an absolutely breathtaking sight it was the night sky in its most purest form removed from society and light pollution. As we walked in the darkness like that of a cave the cold mountain air blew and rustled the leaves. As the crunching of rocks slowed down we had arrived to the clearing Overhead ,in the clearing, hundreds of bright stars burned overhead, it looked like there was millions of bright white dots. At that moment my young 10 year old self had an epiphany. I had an epiphany on how fragile, small, alone, and insignificant we are. I sat there shocked realizing that amongst these hundreds of stars there was probably another kid light years away looking up at his sky and realizing how tiny and alone he was to. Here we were me and that kid separated by vast emptiness having the same thoughts looking at something eerily similar. The experience with the night sky changed my views on life to this day because I now do not stress due to me realizing on the cosmic scale all the petty things we concern ourselves with are insignificant just like tests and getting the greatest grade on a paper is insignificant. This experience all in all just gave me a very grounded view on reality I rarely see things as important on a cosmic scale I am just generally more relaxed. I do not stress about much I always step back from situation and ask myself "Will this matter in 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 years?" If I answer no to any of those I forget about it and do not allow it to consume me.
“The thing I hate about space is that you can feel how big and empty it is… ”
Zig-zag, back and forth, down, down, down, Jonathon, Dad, and I went into a mysterious new world. Now that I have gone into this hot, dry canyon surrounded by monstrous hoodoos, I have seen what it is really like to leave the small town of Seymour, and emerge into the greatness of this world. I have now seen several other National Parks on one of the most renowned places on earth for mysterious creations, the Colorado Plateau. Of all the beautiful places on it, even the Grand Canyon, I have found my favorite one. Bryce Canyon National Park. I thought it was amazing, because it was the most diverse to anything I have ever seen before. We hiked down into it and I felt like I was surrounded by skyscrapers. We trekked around a little, but we didn’t
It was the summer of 2012 and my family was taking another trip to Six Flags Great America. Earlier that summer we went just for me to be disappointed. At the time I wasn’t 54 inches yet and couldn’t ride any of the rides that I wanted to because they were the most popular at the amusement park. But, I hit a growth spurt between trips and we planned to ride all of the big rollercoasters. The one that I was most terrified of at the time was Raging Bull, one of the tallest, fastest, and longest steel coasters in the US. As we started to wait in line for the ride I was shaking with both anticipation and fear and began to rethink my idea to ride the rollercoaster. I decided to stay in line and see what many people thought was a great coaster.
Have you ever looked off a gigantic cliff? Now imagine traveling 30 miles per hour on a bike with curvy roads with enormous cliffs on your side with no rails. This is exactly what I did with my family when we went to Colorado. From the hotel we drove to a bike tour place to take us to the summit of Pikes Peak. After we arrived at the building we saw pictures of how massive the cliffs were, but what terrified me was the fact they had no side rails. This observation was thrilling as well as terrifying. It was an odd mix of emotions, but I loved the adrenaline rush it gave me. My dad whispered to me, “ This will be absolutely horrifying”.
Have you ever been to Texas? I have been once. My trip to Texas was unbelievably awesome. I saw many of things on my way there. While we were there, I had loads of fun. Many things happened while we were there. Texas was the coolest place I have ever been.
The Grand Canyon, it’s truly is grand. The animals, the plant life, and the canyon’s history is something my father and I have been interested in for a long time. My dad, Erik, shows me plant specimens and fossils of animals i’ve never seen before. He once told me there was a type of vulture that are so close to extinction there are only 20 left alive in the world. We visited Arizona to see the Grand Canyon once dad got enough money to go on a roadtrip. I’m so excited to see my friends there, too. I brought so much snacks, maybe too much, and my backpack is kind of heavy for the hiking trip, but I’ll live through it.
One day, or what better describes it, one moment, all those butterflies and all the stars disappeared. My Mother’s job was moving us to Texas. Fate decided it was time for me to grow up and these objects I loved so much were toys that would interfere with learning. So fate took them away, and in their place I was handed Texas. Now, to hand an eight-year-old something like Texas, especially when she had possessed Oklahoma, is like taking the crown jewels from the royals and giving them cubic-zirconium. It just didn’t work. At the first hint of moving I'll admit that I was excited. The imagination of a little girl can run wild with possibilities when she is catapulted into the sky of the unknown. I do believe I was launched further and higher than any of my family ever expected. At that realization, reality decided to intervene and spin me around the dance floor. I was quickly pulled out of my school in the middle of fourth grade; torn from friends I'd had my entire, though short, life. Gone in a snap was everything I'd ever known to be...
My youth pastor pulled out of our church parking lot at three am in the morning loaded down with a bus full of twenty four teenagers including me. We were off at last head to Colorado Spring Colorado, little did I know, our bus was going to fall apart this very day.
AHHHHHHH, that’s the sound I’m going to make when I going to make when I go to Six Flags this weekend. In my opinion, I think that Six Flags has the rides the best rides. There’s just one ride that I’m really afraid of. I t’s the biggest and best ride in Six Flags, the ride literally goes all around Six Flags. But I was afraid of the ride, so I said to my mom “Goliath is just one of the rides I’ll never ride.”
My palms were sweaty, I was a nervous wreck; should I go or not? Just the thought of people dying at Six Flags gives me the chills. Falling off a ride and slowly coming to your death. Even though I was at Six Flags who would have thought that I would have to make such a tough decision about a ride.
In elementary school, I would escape to the library, face burrowing in picture books about space. Walking home with arms full of checked out books, I would pass by my parents consumed in another argument most likely about marital problems and sit in the corner of my room - door shut - to indulge my self in my own private get away. I did not check out my space books to read but instead to dream, dream about a world waiting to be explored. A world free of the petty arguments of my parents, the teachers with high expectations and the chores that awaited me at home
Our summer trips to Colorado seemed to take forever. I was an eager four year old child who couldn't wait to get to my secret place. Every child has a special place: it might be a fort made out of sheets and couple of chairs, or maybe it's an easy chair that serves as a stage coach or a fighter plane. Maybe its a bed that becomes a ship protecting you from sharks. My special place was at my grandparents farm.
The space that surrounds is not merely the universe is not merely ideas of human minds.
Growing up in a massive neighborhood magnificent. My neighborhood flooded with kids around my age to hang out with. Occupying the edge of this neighborhood was a large park where the neighborhood’s kids and I would spend most of our time eliminating their boredom. When this park would not satisfy our needs, there were
It was a maddening rush, that crisp fall morning, but we were finally ready to go. I was supposed to be at State College at 10:00 for the tour, and it was already eight. My parents hurriedly loaded their luggage into the van as I rushed around the house gathering last minute necessities. I dashed downstairs to my room and gathered my coat and my duffel bag, and glanced at my dresser making sure I was leaving nothing behind and all the rush seemed to disappear. I stood there as if in a trance just remembering all the stories behind the objects and clutter accumulated on it. I began to think back to all the good times I have had with my family and friends each moment represented by a different and somewhat odd object.