Hi, I’m Ryan. I’m a first-year at Colorado College and this blog will be a window to my thoughts, ideas and mind for my current class, Life in the Universe. We just had our first introduction to the class today and it sounds awesome. We’ll be talking astronomy, astrophysics, aliens, Men in Black, suns and stars and all that jazz. We will also be going on a stargazing trip, which I am stoked for. I actually have not had much experience camping and sorts but Colorado is as good a place to start as any I guess. I did go on a trip with a friend in Utah, hiking around Goblin Valley, the Arches National Park and slot canyons. That trip definitely sparked interest in me to take this course. I remember on the first night the sky was covered in stars; raining from the top all the way down to the horizon. Absolutely stunning. It was the most beautiful skyline I’ve ever seen. Since then, I’ve always wanted to learn more about the enterprise of stars that lie up there.
I was born in LA and raised in Hong Kong. When I was in 8th grade, my parents gave me the opportunity to study in the States, so I took it. I studied at Concord Academy near Boston, Mass. for four years, and it wasn’t easy. I had never been challenged academically that much before. But more importantly, I learned more about myself than I did about school work. My dad would always say, “a good teacher does not give his/her students knowledge, but teaches them how to learn and inspires them.” Concord definitely did that for me.
I am currently undeclared but my interests lie in Physics and Economics. Physics is definitely my favorite natural science because it is visible unlike chemistry and biology. I can’t see hormones or atoms, I can’t see the oxygen flowing through my system, but I can certainly see gravity. I can see projectile motion. I can see levers, pendulums and centripetal acceleration. These are all things that we already use in our daily lives, physics is simply a way of understanding and explaining the tools of life.
On the other hand, Economics was interesting to me because it is also a different way of looking at life and problems. In any community we have cultural practices that we do on a daily basis, most of which are based on tradition. No one every judges or questions these practices because it is “just the way things are around here.” Often times, there are more efficient ways of doing things but they often elude our minds because they would be deemed socially unacceptable.
As for astronomy, space, stars and planets are undoubtedly tied to the beginning of life. And the answer (if there is one out there) to one of the oldest questions of mankind, “Where did life begin?” surely fascinates me. Obviously I don’t expect to get an answer to that question in this class, but I definitely want to learn more about other potential life forms, astrophysics and Life in the Universe.
