"Space: the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations,to boldly go where no one has gone before."
- Jean-Luc Picard -
I still remember my two favorite books when I was a child. The first one was a large book filled with colourful illustrations of dinosaurs. The second one was a small, thick book about space, from which I read the stories of Copernicus and Galileo. I still remember a happy time when I acquired a pipette and and played with it all weeks, transfering water from one cup to another, pretending to do a scientific experiment. I still remember the first time I heard captain Picard on the television, when I was a lad: "To boldly go where no one has gone before". I still remember that simple time when I have two and only two jobs in my mind - an astronaut, or an archaeologist. I still remember when I have to spirit to boldly go where no one has gone before.
And then, somewhere or sometime along the way, I dropped it. Did I become more realistic, as a result of growing up? After all, the society has a certain order, a certain division of labour. Therefore, not everyone is destined to be an explorer of the unknown, isn't it? Is there still a frontier to boldly go?
Perhaps, it is better to be well-trained for a realistic position in the society. Perhaps. Yet, I could not stop hearing a fainted beckoning. A yearning, to go out there, to the frontier.
And then, I realised one thing: The frontier is still there. A scientist is the captain of a ship traversing the vast space of knowledge. I am yet to be out of the race.
The question is whether I will do supply runs between familiar colonies, or I will plot a course to the final frontier.
Because, after all, I am the captain.
YOU ARE READING
365
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