I grew up just a couple of states away from Alabama, in a suburb outside of Houston, Texas. Many people in my community worked for NASA since we lived so close to their headquarters. Our mayor was even a former astronaut! While I have always enjoyed learning about space, the planet that fascinates me the most has always been Earth. Where else can you find such complex life, incredible cultures and delicious food? Honestly, I do not understand how anyone could choose Venus as their favorite planet after trying churros con chocolate (fried dough with chocolate sauce).
Languages are what fascinate me most about our home planet. I studied two of them, Spanish and English, at the University of Houston, and I even took some German classes so I could finally read the recipes my great-grandparents brought with them when they moved to the U.S. from Germany. I think language learning is amazing because it is one of the few skills where you can still succeed even if you are not perfect. For example, if you are bad at basketball, you probably will not win many games. But with “bad” Spanish, you can still communicate, make friends, order food and get your questions answered, even if your pronunciation is not perfect or you mix up verb tenses. I should know: I do it every day!
