Dear _____,

I went to the planetarium yesterday. I think it was my first time ever going to a planetarium in general, because I can’t remember if I’ve ever been to one before in my life. My elementary school once rented a giant inflatable star-dome thing that we could crawl into to see the different constellations. That was really cool. But it’s not the same.

Anyway, this planetarium had what you might expect: some space stuff (lunar rocks and meteorites), interactive exhibits for kids (which can be fun for adults too – like simulating a rocket launch), and the various signs and displays explaining space science. It was all cool, but it’s the latter that interested me the most. How stars are born, how matter exists in the universe, the beginning of time – beyond the human history and natural history of the world, there’s the universal history. The history that it’s easy to not think about until we look up, allowing our thoughts to move past the blue above our heads.

After my visit, I walked around the city for a bit. The whole time, I was thinking about how tiny we really are. A single planet floating in a great dark ocean… it boggles my mind. Yet, despite our scale in the grand scope of the universe, we are made of the stuff that was birthed at the start of it. All the matter that has ever existed – we’re a part of it. We breathe in bits of star dust every day; we are made up of collections of atoms from all across the cosmos. Everything – whether living or not – is made of this ancient material, and we can easily forget about it until reminded. When you think about that… I mean, in that moment of realization, we become colossuses. We are forged from the building blocks of the universe that have hurdled through space to get here. And then we get distracted by other things and we forget about this, until we are reminded of it again.

If I had to compare this feeling to another, I suppose it’s like when you’re conscious of your own breathing. It doesn’t last long, because the normalcies of life come back and we slide back into our day to day. But for that split second… we’re aware of it. We may even ben in awe of it. In that moment, we realize how incredible it is to be experiencing this sensation, to simply exist. I think it allows us to see how special we are,. How special you are, how special I am… just for being here.

Because to live is something that just happens, miraculously. It happens and suddenly we’re here and we do what we do with the time we have. It happens and sometimes we become unconscious to the feeling of being alive until we realize our own breathing again. Until we realize we are all little universes occupying this shared existence. Until we realize we’re made of the stuff that used to be ancient suns and wayward comets – we’re made of space dust that somehow cobbled together to make… us, you and me. If that’s not beautiful, then I don’t know what is.

Originally written 17-08-2026

Accompanying music: Older Than the Universe by Andrew Prahlow