When the Stars Align (Anthony Rizzo)

26| Self Educated

Anthony

After deciding to stay in my apartment in Chicago for the offseason, by myself for a little while at least, I had some free time for the first time in forever. I didn't need to be home for a while so I was going to actually be a Chicagoan. And tonight I was going to take Kelsey on a date at the sky deck and overlook this beautiful city we find ourself in. Then after that we will take a stroll in a park and go sight seeing as true Chicagoan's do.

But I have to wait until Kelsey is done with work before we can do any of that. So I decide to do some research on stars to try and impress my date at dinner tonight. Maybe I'm about five months too late to work on my impressions of her, but I know she'll appreciate it nonetheless. She lights up every time someone mentions something about the sky so this will be a nice surprise for her.

So I hop on the computer and do a little digging. I try to find something that she might not know or would have forgot about but there was so much there. For someone who never went to college she sure did retain a heck of a lot of information.

"Our sun was formed 4,600 million years ago and its expected to live a total of 10,000 million years" I read as I nod my head. "Take that Mayan's" I scoff as I click to the next fact. I keep reading and reading and suddenly it was 5 o clock and it was time to pick Kelsey up from work.

So I quickly change and I hop in my car. I go to play my music off my phone but find a podcast about space and play that instead. I pull up and find her outside the planetarium waiting for me. So I get out of my seat and open the door for her before she hops in the car.

"I thought you forgot about me" she teases.

"First of all, I could never forget about you. You're literally always on my mind. And second of all I got caught up with... something" I claim.

"Alright. And what would that be" she wonders.

"You promise not to laugh if I tell you the truth" I question.

"When do I ever laugh at your expense" she questions.

"Literally always" I insist and she laughs.

"Alright. I promise, this time, that I won't laugh at you" she promises.

"Okay.

I spent the whole day looking up fun facts about space and stars and planets to try and impress you at dinner" I spill.

"That's actually really cute" she smiles. "So what did you learn" she wonders.

"So much! Like how space is completely silent, there's nothing there to bounce sounds off of so it just gets absorbed. Besides the planets there's absolutely no sounds to our galaxy. Not even when stars explode or there's a black hole. I learned that even though Mercury is the closest to the sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Mercury doesn't have a atmosphere so the temperature fluctuates where on Venus it is constantly hot. I also learned that one day on Venus is over a year on earth" I ramble.

"Wow, you really did your research" she notices.

"I did. That stuff is really interesting and if I would have known that I would have gone to college and studied it" I admit.

"You don't need all of that. There is a sky above you at every second of the day. Just ask some questions and google it on the internet. Soon enough you'll know as much as you taught yourself" she explains.

"Is that how you learned" I wonder.

"Partially. But a lot of it came from my mom, from sitting in on her planetarium lectures and reading the stuff around us. College was never in my sights, I never had ambitions to go somewhere far away from home, spend tens of thousands of dollars learning stuff I'll never need. I know a lot of people who are hiring are begging for college degrees, and in a lot of scenarios they should be. But my love for the sky and all the wonders it holds doesn't come from a textbook or a PowerPoint. This stuff is so easy for me because I love it and I didn't need to college to know that" she explains.

"I'm happy you chose your own path. Because it lead you to me and I've learned so much about life on this earth and everything else around it" I insist. I reach over and grab her hand before lacing my fingers through hers. I set our hands on the center council and we drive off to the sky deck.

We get there and take the elevator all the way up. We get our reservation and get the table with the best view in the whole city.

"I've never been this close to the stars" she says softly as she looks out the window.

"Really? You've never been in a plane before" I wonder.

"Nope, never had a reason to" she shrugs.

"I'll get you on a plane one day. We'll go up so far that when you look down all you'll see is the clouds and when you look up all you can see is the sky. You can look out the window and be next to the stars and you'll have that one in a million smile across your face. Like there isn't another place you would rather be at the time. You'll realize that you've been where you were supposed to be this whole time and by the time you land you'll be asking to go up there again" I insist.

"That sounds like me" she admits.

"I listen to you" I assure her.

"I know. You're starting to sound like me, it's kinda scary" she claims.

"How so" I wonder.

"When will we be able to see Hayley's comet again" she quizzes.

"2061" I scoff. That was too easy.

"What are the desist and tiniest stars known to man" she questions.

"Neutron Stars, and even though they're some of the smallest stars their density multiples that of the sun. They can rotate at a rate of 60 spins per second and are born from the fallout of a supernova" I explain. "Alright... now I hear it" I admit and she giggles at me.

"You don't need college to love knowledge" she reminds me.

"I'll remember that for whenever the next big thing to come out of college comes to the team and gives me shit" I insist.