The Wonders Above

Growing up I’ve always had a fascination with space, the most interesting thing about it is its endless size. When I was just nine years old I received a telescope for my birthday. The telescope was a cheap no name brand but was very powerful for what my father had paid for. Since I lived in Houston it was not always clear skies, due to air, and light pollution, but I explored the skies regularly. The clarity of the moon and stars varied from day to day. Also around that same age period I was a part of the Boy Scouts of America. We took many camping trips across Texas and they were all unique.

The one trip I can remember is when my group went to Yellowstone National park. The trips were very vivid in my mind because my father brought my new telescope along. My love for space actually came from going on the Boy Scout camping trips and looking up at the clear starry night.

The trip took place on a Saturday night, and our scout leader, Mr. Ed was very thrilled to explain what we would be doing while we were camping out. I didn’t very much care for what he was saying while we were on our way to the park, all I could wait for was for him to point out the constellations and stars, it was a common thing he would do every trip. The night began with normal camping activities such as making smores and "scary" ghost stories, which were actually sometimes pretty frightening. I was very glad my dad came along because he had brought the telescope for my friends and I to use. After my camp leader finished with the stories, he began to tell us about the stars. My heart began to race because I had loved to listen to his stories about the stars and everything that had to do with the planets.  I was also excited because I had never used my telescope with a night sky so clear.

As I gazed up at the clear black and shiny sky I saw something that caught my eye. I screamed for my dad to come look and I pointed at a shooting star. As my father and I watched he began to set up the telescope. The shooting star was a beautiful light that danced across the sky, I watched in awe as I told my dad to hurry up. My entire squad began to shout "OOOHHHS" and AAAHHHSS". Before I knew it the meteorite was gone and the telescope still wasn’t set up. Disappointed I sat by the camp fire thinking about how much cooler it would of been if I had used the telescope to examine the meteorite. My father was cheering me up by telling me "it is alright" and "next time we would catch it”. Even Mr. Ed was cheering me up by telling me something magical was fixing to happen.

Twenty minutes later I finally understood why Mr. Ed chose this specific Saturday to go on this trip. As I looked up I saw multiple rows of lights shoot across the sky, multiple meteorites glowed and caught the attention of everybody. I was witnessing a meteor shower and I had my telescope to examine every rock. At first I thought it was a good idea to use the telescope but my father warned me not to look at it because they are too bright. I was disappointed again but I had a better understanding of why. The show lasted for a couple of minutes but it was a magical experience. After it was over Mr. Ed showed us different stars that I viewed with my father. This experience is important because it was one of the few quality times I was able to share with my father and I viewed the stars with my great telescope.

Comparison

Two poems that interested me the most were “Ever After” by Joyce Sutphen and “Variation of the word Sleep” by Margaret Atwood. I choose these poems because they had very similar ideas. While reading both these poems I was able to fully understand how much love the authors have for the individual they are describing. The authors describe their love in many different ways.

                Both of the stories are centered on their loved one and the process of love.  In "Ever After" the story is about her ex. She talks about how she feels now and the decay of her relationship. The poem is about everything they use to be. Throughout the story the author brings up the idea how there is no more “us” and how much love she still has. I feel the author is reminiscing on the past because she brings up the past memory of their hands clasped on the knife as they cut the wedding cake. The wedding cake slice signifies unity and I feel she used that imagery to reference the love topic. I also believe the cake imagry is used last to symbolize how she missed her loved one and is obvioulsly hurt. I also think there is a lot of space and lack of communication between them because the author says “what am I to you now that you are no longer what you used to be to me?”  This poem is mostly about the fear she faces from losing her loved one, and the end of a relationship.

The other poem Variation of the word Sleep is also about love, but it’s more of an obsessive type. The poem is about how the author wants to be everything to her lover.  The author is passionate to her lover and expresses how necessary he wants to feel.  She is obviously in love and has a strange way of expressing it. Both of these poems have a strange way of expressing love, but the topic is still the same. These two poems can also coexist with each other because I feel “Variations of the word Sleep could be the first state of love. Like falling in love because all you think about is your lover. This poem can definitely fit in that category. Whereas “Ever After” can be the end of a loving relationship where one member still has feelings and spends there time thinking about what life you to be like. “Ever After” also seems sadder just based on how she expresses her feelings. So I believe it can be incorporated in ending a good relationship.