“And over here you can—”

The tour guides words faded away as my eyes darted towards the massive satellite that stood no more that ten feet away from me. It’s huge dark purple solar panels hypnotized me, and I felt that if I blinked for even a microsecond I would miss out on its magnificence. 

It’s mere existence brought up something in my soul that has no name. Something that goes beyond awe or inspiration. Perhaps the unfathomable realization that something sitting right in front of me would one day be hurtling through space, orbiting around our planet through the efforts of a bunch of cognitively well-developed primates. Or the respect I felt for the engineers who acknowledged that they would one day have to leave this planet, and decided to build something so much bigger than themselves that would inspire future generations for centuries to come. Or the somewhat comforting realization of how insignificant I am in altering the course of the cosmos.

It was the epitome of human excellence: a representation of our curiosity, our demand to understand the world around and beyond us, a realization that maybe humankind really isn’t that bad after all. 

—see a satellite that will eventually explore the cosmos.”

I walked out of the high bay a new person.