Somewhere

I remember the school trips – long bus rides to dark rooms with glow in the dark stars and planets, dome shaped screens that took us into outer space from the comfort of our chairs, mind-warping questions that left us feeling like we were small and insignificant.

I remember the first time I gazed down a telescope – shivering and tired, the moon gazing back at me painted in shades of blue or red, the craters so clear it was hard to grasp how far away they were.

I remember the stories – theories about aliens and spaceships, mysterious green lights, forbidden lands and footsteps on the moon.

I close my eyes and picture places I can only imagine.  Planets and galaxies we have yet to discover are cut from the same cloth as our own.  

What would it be like to plant my booted foot in a crater on the moon, unbound by gravity and further from home than ever before?  What would it be like, turning around and gazing at the giant we call Earth, our home, from such a distance away, where the individual human figure becomes invisible, leaving only countries that illuminate with the implication of life.  Would they be able to see me, or would they too be looking up at a marble in the sky, unaware of the life hiding in plain sight before them?

It’s an isolating thought, to realise that our busy lives, in which we are so important, are so insignificant in the context of the universe.  Somewhere, hidden between the purple and blue folds of the universe, are there other forms of life thinking the same thing?  Are they also going about their day with a blissful, naive importance?  

Over there, is time a construct they conform to?  Do they speak different languages?  Have they evolved technology beyond our comprehension, or are they millions of years behind where we are?

Do they look up at the night sky and wonder about us?

I sip my hot chocolate and snuggle deeper into my chair, letting the softness of my blanket envelop me.  The sky is clear, cloudless and sparkling with a million and one stars that could be to other planets what the sun is to us.  How strange a thought it is that somewhere, out there, there might be another form of life, staring up into their sky, looking at our sun from so far away that it’s just another star.  

I smile and wave, and somewhere, tucked away in a little corner of the universe,  I imagine someone is waving back.

Writer – Olivia Hautler
Editor – Kenneth Gong
Artist – Grace Ye

–June 2026–