"Growing Up On a Space Station"
by Lyiam Gato
Growing up on a space station, I had always wanted to go to Earth. I'm fifteen now, and I've lived on that station from birth to two months ago. Sure, you might think, "Oh, well, he's lucky to have grown up on a space station." This is only half true.
When I was born on the station, my family, including my mother, Elane Barber, my father, Wilson Barber, and me, Elroy Barber, were praised to be the first family in space. Back on Earth, we were dubbed 'The Jetsons', after the classic TV show.
To commemorate this "accomplishment", my father named me Elroy, after the son of the Jetsons father.
My mom and dad don't really look like the kind of people that are astronauts. Elane Ruse has sandy brown hair and blue eyes. Wilson Barber has black hair and green eyes. The combination of both parents gave me black hair and blue eyes.
Anyway, my wanting to go to Earth started one morning when I was ten. My mom and dad went to work in the Astronomy Tower, the tower where you can see anything in space within a million light-year radius.
While my parents were working, I was having a breakfast of Astrologic Nutrients, which was just a bunch of corn flakes that, when milk was added, made it so your bones wouldn't become frail in space.
After finishing my astro-cereal, I headed into the living room for a little TV. But when I entered the TV room and started my search for the remote, I found instead that my mail transmissioner [ something we use to transmit mail to Earth which works and looks like a cell phone] was flashing. When I checked to see who it was, I discovered that it was from my Grandma back on Earth, and was full of pictures of Earth.
There was pictures of mountains, valleys, rivers, canyons, forests, pictures of restaurants, grocery stores, and even a picture of were my parents' shuttle lifted off.
I felt a sudden homesickness that I didn't understand because, well, I never lived on Earth. I longed to hike across those mountains, swim in those rivers, climb those trees, or even order whatever they serve at a McDonalds [trillions and trillions served.
All these things made me realize how lucky the people on Earth were, and how most of them probably took it for granted. I felt a sudden envy for what they had.
Then it struck me: why not just go back to Earth? We still have the shuttle with three quarters of fuel left, so why not?
But when I confronted my parents on the issue, they looked at me with uncomfortable faces. Mom then said, "Honey... we understand how you must feel, but... we can't leave until another group comes to take our place, which won't happen for another five years."
The shock hit me after the two seconds of numbness. As a kid, I didn't have a lot of patience. Back then, five years sounded like five decades.
Currently, I am on Earth. This is because, on my fifteenth birthday, my parents constructed a remote control shuttle for me to go to Earth to live with Grandma. They stayed to do research on the recently discovered planet, Achilles.
From now on, whenever someone tells me, "Your lucky to have lived on a space station" I smile and think of how right they are.
If not for that station, I'd probably be taking all these things for granted.