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Brandon Martinez-Lopez

Senior Capstone Final

Merriott

April 18, 2022

Looking Beyond the Stars

It’s never been easy for me to explain who I am. I’ve done multiple of these ‘who am I’

essays all throughout high school and it never feels right. It always feels incomplete, or like I’m

just adding the bare minimum explanation. Things like: “I grew up here” and “I like this”. It’s

more of an identity problem, a struggle to figure out who I want people to think I am, how I want

them to see me, and who I want to be. It’s been difficult for me as my brain can be a confusing

mess to even myself. It has caused me to overthink how everyone will have a different opinion of

me and the person I decide to show, but I’ve begun to learn it really does not matter. Being

oneself is really what makes a person unique, so why should I care about creating an opinion for

people when I can just be myself and let people think what they want. I’ve been overthinking for

too long, doubting myself at some points, and missing what the point of expressing myself even

means. I’ve realized that we all doubt our abilities, those who have high ability doubt it, and

those who don’t become overconfident. As for me, I’ve doubted my abilities for far too long and

I should begin to value what I can do.

My name is Brandon Martinez-Lopez. I am a senior at Lee High School. My parents are

both Mexican immigrants who came to the United States in hopes of bringing financial aid to

their families back home. They had my sister and me here but separated around 2009 after my

mom was done with my dad's behavior towards all of us. My mom saw something change in him

and knew she just had to leave. So my mom took on the incredible feat of raising us herself. Not
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many people would have the courage to do that, but she was different. She always had an

unmatched dedication, driven just by being able to see her kids live a better life every day with

her efforts. It was always difficult and life was hard, we didn’t have very much and my mom

received very little outside help early on. My dad did not even provide necessary help; he wasn’t

involved at all but that didn’t matter to her, after all, she left for that reason. I believe that if my

mom wasn’t the woman she proved she could be, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. I’ve

learned to value many things from those experiences growing up. Misfortune can happen to

anyone, but it’s never an excuse to give up. “Sometimes things are just going to happen and the

universe doesn't care about any of it” (Mack). I’ve always looked up to the efforts she made in

order to be where she is now, from that I learned that it really does take dedication to accomplish

what you know you want. My mom wanted to accomplish a comfortable life for her kids. So, she

had to constantly push through anything that happened, always needing to borrow money and

always in debt. No matter what it took, she was going to get what she was striving for. I think

that’s the reason for me being the way I am now. I’ve learned from her that good things never

come easy, but that doesn’t mean you complain, it means you get to work and strive for those

things.

After high school, I’d like to attend college, it just makes sense as what I want to do

requires it. I plan on completing my undergraduate degree and then returning to graduate school

for a master's and then a Ph.D. It’s something I want to accomplish for myself because I want to

be an astrophysicist. So, to be one, I’m going to have to go through the effort of following the

long pathway for that career. I’d like to be an educator within the field as a professor along with

being a researcher. I want to show the world the importance of such a field as not many people

care anymore even while having infinite access to all the information they could ever need to be
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educated. “In an educated 21st-century society, it's not crazy to expect that people should at least

have a fundamental grasp on how gravity works and electricity and magnetism. At least enough

so they can confidently say that energy fields or alternative medicine or these kinds of quack

ideas, the average person should be able to explain why that's all nonsense. Unfortunately, a lot

of people don't take the time to really kind of appreciate difficult concepts in science” (TerBeek).

Educating the world to think rationally and make those connections is incredibly important for

the future of humanity. I want to be able to help people obtain a better understanding of the

world they live in and gain an appreciation for complex science. After all, science is what

advances our society. If we take a look at our past, we see great creations which puzzle us today

in a modern world; where we wonder how our ancestors could create things without advanced

technology. We’ve always had the knowledge and the spirit of pursuing great things. It’s a lack

of information and knowledge being passed down which causes it to be lost in time.

Revolutionary ideas disappear once great minds are gone. We shouldn’t let it keep happening and

educate ourselves so we don’t lose what we’ve learned. We wouldn't want to leave future

generations questioning how we did what we consider to be simple tasks. I want to make a

change and get people to care again, so we don’t continue doubting our own abilities to create

great things and believe something like aliens did all the work for us. All that does is put down

our greatest minds of society and the things we can all accomplish when we have the drive to do

something revolutionary. It’s what makes us human.

In order to achieve those goals the first step will be to attend college. So I’ll have to earn

a bachelor's preferably in astronomy or astrophysics. From there, I’ll move on to graduate school

to earn a master's and pursue a Ph.D. in order to become a published researcher and a qualified

educator. It will take a lot of time but I know it’s what I want to do, so I will dedicate myself to
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it. So my plan is to continue working to earn money before college, then head to college to

complete my first few years. Managing all of it could become difficult because I’d have to

balance my education and life, and I’d need to work through college to continue paying for

expenses. Many colleges pay students to do research as part of their graduate studies, so it might

be possible for me to do that in order to gain work experience in my field. I have to recognize

that there will always be opportunities, and I need to take them whenever possible. “The main

thing that I try to stress……is to keep your eyes open and keep looking for opportunities. You

don’t know what is going to come your way, and some of the opportunities may not be

something that was on your menu already but give them a think, because they might lead you

someplace” (Sandford). Life is ever-changing and I have to be prepared to avoid the obstacles

and take the opportunities that arise to get past them.

Time is always moving, it never stops even when life becomes difficult. It causes life to

play out differently for everyone because you have to keep moving forward with time.

Sometimes it causes opportunities to arise, but other times it causes them to be left behind. It

happens to everyone, for my family there were conflicts, but there were also opportunities. We

took those opportunities to make it through, and because of that we now live a better life than we

could ask for. What that means for me is that I can handle difficult situations, I know I can

maintain myself even when situations get difficult. I know I’m a problem solver so I can manage

difficult moments in life. I need to lay out my plan for life and begin taking those first few steps.

I know what it is that I want, but I need to dedicate myself to it, I need to figure out myself and

understand just how much I can do and put those abilities to use. The most important part to me

though is to follow what I want to do and to always be myself. Even if I decide to pursue a

different path in the future, I don’t want to change who I am just because my goals changed. I
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want to be the person that I’ve always been and not change for anyone just to please them. I have

to work for what I want because what I’ve learned is it doesn’t matter where you come from, no

matter your background and your roots, it’s only you who decides what to follow. You guide

your own life when you decide to step up and direct it. All that is needed is the motivation to

persist and see those dreams and goals to the very end.
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Works Cited

Mack, Katie. Interview by Crane, Leah. “Journey to the End of the Universe.” New Scientist,

Reed Business Information, 22 May 2020,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0262407920309726.

Rojo, Sara. “Interview with Scott Sandford, Astrophysicist.” NASA, NASA, 15 Apr. 2019,

www.nasa.gov/ames/spacescience-and-astrobiology/interview-with-scott-sandford-astroph

ysicist.5yu5i9

TerBeek, Russell. Personal interview. 1 April 2022.