How I Ended Up Being an Astronomy Student and I Love It

 How I Ended Up Being an Astronomy Student and I Love It 

I actually have a life plan for my 40s in the future. I choose 40s because somepeople said that it is the year of someone’s peak of success or failure. I’d madetheplan in the middle school. But it still had various and, for my current’s condition, irrelevant objectives. Now that I’m an astronomy student, I’ve choosen a pathandI’m happy about it. 

I always want to state that I’m proud and grateful with this path of life. I feel that I was destined to be in this “star line” indeed. It feels like my childhood was givingsome “spoilers” ahead. My father was an astronomy enthusiast. He had a hobbytocalculate lunar calendar. He also still had used his middle school notes about falakcourse (Islamic astronomy), combined with current modern books. I was interestedin those books. Books after books, I looked out for the picture of the planets inthespace and, even more exciting for me, their terrains. I also had fun with readingtheir facts. Then, my curiousity grew bigger and bigger. I even summarized Wikipedia articles about planets and stars in handwritten notes when I was 6th grade. 

At that time, I actually had no idea about becoming an astronomer. I don’t evenknow that astronomer is a thing. But this unconscious act of fond in astronomyrepeated again in middle school and high school time. When I was in the middleschool, I made my final project in Indonesian language course about space exploration topic. Next, when I was in high school, I joined science olympiad’s teamin the field of astronomy. But the funny part is when I was asked by my mentor about whether I will continue my study in astronomy degree or not, I said without hesitatation that I don’t. My friend also asked by the same question and answeredyes. But the reality is inverted: now I’m in astronomy department and my friendisin another department (geophysic department). Nevertheless, finally I took a courage to apply in that department with full of concern and will never regret it.