Finn led a simple life in the small town by the sea, unlike the other students at his school. His dad was a librarian and his mom ran the bakery downtown. They lived in a small house on a hill that his grandfather had built decades ago.

He had gotten the highest grades in his second-grade class, so his teacher thought he could get into a private school with a scholarship.

So he took the test, and thus he went to the school he does now.

He didn’t like it any better than public school; he probably liked it even less because of how elitist the teachers and students could be. But he dealt with it for his parents. They were so happy that he had gotten into the school and that he was doing so well, that he didn’t feel like telling them that he wanted to leave.

So he put up with it. It wasn’t very hard. Just study, don’t talk with anyone you don’t want to and get good grades. Easy.

He was alone in his room. His babysitter, Jenna, was downstairs cooking dinner. It was usually like this. His parents worked hard to support the family, so they weren’t home very often. Jenna was nice, but she was also quiet; probably more than he was. Two people like that don’t exactly hit it off very easily, so they kept to themselves.

He opened up a textbook that his dad had brought home from the library for him. He turned to the astrology section and he ran his finger over the words in 11 point font.

“Isn’t this a little too hard for you?” his dad asked when he had brought the requested book to him.

“I can handle it” he assured him, taking the textbook up to his room. His dad was right though; the book was a higher level. Many words were hard to pronounce, and the science in it was far beyond anything they taught in elementary school. He didn’t mind, however. Whatever he didn’t understand or couldn’t pronounce, he asked Jenna.

Besides, it wasn’t all the science that he was interested in, he mostly liked the sections on space. He read over descriptions of planets, comets, meteors, stars, and constellations.

His love for science started earlier in the year, in August.

His uncle had taken him on a trip to New York, and one day they visited the Museum of Natural History. They went to the dinosaur exhibition first, because all little boys loved dinosaurs.

“Finn, you know most of these bones aren’t the original? They were remade for the exhibition so they could be stable” he explained. He didn’t say it very loudly, but loud enough to earn glares from surrounding parents who were there with their kids. They looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Who cares if they weren’t real? As long as they were accurate, it was okay.

The real fun was when they went to the planetarium. The star show absolutely captivated him. He learned about supernovas, the creation of planets and stars, and the galaxies that were far beyond theirs.

He left the show feeling enlightened, and his world seemed to open up. He wanted to see these things for himself.

He asked for a telescope for his birthday. On November 8, he got it, and immediately set it up.

That night, he looked for three constellations; Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and Andromeda. He followed the directions he read in his book and he noticed the oval of light. Zooming in, he let out a faint gasp. He had found the Andromeda galaxy. He showed his parents. They seemed happy that he found something he loved, but didn’t show too much interest.

He showed Jenna the next day. She smiled and showed him many other constellations, mostly the zodiac ones.

“Do you want to work for NASA?” she asked him. NASA? He had heard of it but wasn’t sure what it was. He cocked his head in confusion.

“You know, National Aeronautics and Space Administration” she explained, “they study space and do expeditions up in space.”

He considered it for a moment and Jenna chuckled and ruffled his head.

“Never mind. It’s too early for you to decide these things” she said, heading back inside.

Perhaps the real reason he was so fascinated by the galaxy was because it was so big. It let him know that there was so much more beyond the small town that he lived in.

In this small port town, you were either rich, or you were a nobody. He knew that much. Nothing ever changes. Knowing that there was so much beyond made his world so small, it was suffocating. He craved to expand his world.

So he worked hard. He was no genius, and learning didn’t come any easier to him than it did to most people. He would have to study. Otherwise, he wouldn’t get anywhere, and he wanted to get somewhere.

Somewhere far beyond where he was now.