By Stefan Petrovic

Curiosity has driven the advancement in technology for thousands of years. Curiosity in itself is a great force in human nature, and I constantly find myself wondering about the mysteries of the cosmos and how everything in the universe reacts with everything. Part of this curiosity stems from my love of science, but there was also a defining moment of my childhood where I really started to become interested in the universe specifically and I also started to explore the limits of human curiosity.

When I was around the age of nine, or entering grade 5, my elementary school had a three-day trip to a camp known as “Wildfire” up in northern Ontario. In this camp, we learned about basic survival techniques to help us in the wild, such as building fires, cutting down trees, and identifying safe food. Overall, these skills didn’t interest me that much, as I was an arrogant child who thought it was useless to need all of these techniques when I lived in the city. I was counting down the hours until I could go back home and play on my Nintendo DS, until the second night came.

The counselors told us to lie down and look up at the night sky, while they tried to explain how to find some cool constellations. As soon as I looked up at the sky, I was completely mesmerized. All I could hear was the wind pushing the grass all around me, and all I could see was the night sky lit up like New York City on Christmas Eve. I eventually looked beyond the beautiful sight and started to ask myself what was beyond. How can we see these stars? How far away is everything I see? What is space? Suddenly, the hours that dragged on and on earlier in the day, past by at the speed of light. An hour staring at the stars felt like five minutes, and at one point, I was reluctant to go back to the city, as I could no longer see the stars due to the light pollution in Toronto. Initially, I was upset; but as time went on, I realized that I wasn’t just mesmerized by the stars, I was also mesmerized by the ability to think deeply about the universe. I realized that everything can be imagined in a certain way, and as long as I have my imagination, my curiosity will continue to grow until somehow the answers to everything that ever existed and will exist are answered. Basically, my curiosity is limitless.

One year later, my elementary school went to the same camp, as there was so much positive feedback from the year before. This time, I embraced the survival skills and techniques that I had at one point deemed useless, and I fixed my negative attitude and arrogance. I waited and waited for the first night to appear so that I could relive again the beautiful moment of gazing deep into the cosmos. Unfortunately, the counselors on the first night did not let us go outside and watch the stars, as they deemed the creation of dreamcatchers more important. That night I decided that I was too impatient, and I snuck outside of my cabin and walked over to the place where the bonfire stood. I laid down, and once again, my eyes and the eyes of infinite universe were locked in a staring contest. Eventually I had to give out, but being back at the same location I had been exactly a year earlier gave me goosebumps that still give me a chill today.

This event that I lived through twice definitely shaped me into the person that I am today. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the world around me, I think back to those moments, where I am staring up at the night sky as a kid who barely knew anything about anything. Just the sight of the stars that I keep in my mind calms me, and the questions that I ask myself soothes my soul. Curiosity is a strange feeling that every human experiences, and honing this feeling of curiosity has changed the way I think about a lot of things in my life, from my academic future, to normal questions I ponder in everyday life. I believe that without curiosity, I wouldn’t be able to live my life the way I live it now.