Arora Borealis- A Dream Come True
- navakallc
- May 11, 2024
- 3 min read
As I celebrated the weekend of finishing my first AP test and started studying for yet another one, the universe gave me the sweetest surprise by showing me what, in my opinion, is the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen. Indeed, I saw the Arora Borealis, or Northern lights.
Arora Borealis form due to the charged ions in the thermosphere (a layer of the atmosphere) that is hit with solar radiation at high speed, which creates interactions with Nitrogen and Oxygen, hence creating a dancing blue, green and reddish pattern in the sky. I didn’t know that before I took my APES class in school. It was cool to learn about them and even cooler to be able to experience it.
Though science aside, I grew up dreaming about seeing those lights, something that was on the top of my bucket list. I was watching a cartoon when I was little, and I was enthralled by the dancing lights I saw, thinking they were just a part of the magic from the show. Over time, I understood that it was something real, but never knew how it originated. I used to lie in my bed at night, dreaming of those lights and their ethereal glow as I saw the trees’ shadows dancing in the wind on my room ceiling. Finally seeing them was the best gift I could get after taking my AP Environmental Science test.
My dad had been following the news about it for a while, but I had totally forgotten about it, until I heard my phone chime. Look out, our friends said. That was all it took for us to wrap ourselves up in jackets, sit in the car, and drive off in the distance to a once in a lifetime experience. Walking out of the car felt surreal, like we were in a dream, and time had stood still.
Each step we took was vibrating in my ears as we went in search for a better look, beyond the trees covering our view. My breath caught in my chest as I was suddenly in front of the mesmerizing view. I could see green, blue, purple, you name it. The lights were dancing around in the sky like Peter Pan in search of his shadow.
Never before had I experienced something like this. I closed my eyes and felt the light breeze fluttering my hair up, whispering in the night sky. I was in a fantasy, watching the glow of the crescent moon, it’s shape like the perfect nook to sit on and watch the sky. The stars were even more beautiful, twinkling and shimmering, as if they were excitedly dancing along with the lights, beyond what my eyes could see. I lied down on the ground to take it all in, people’s chatter drifting away as I went down a trip to memory lane.
Fireflies made me feel the same way, their glow so luminescent against the darkness of the night. It always awes me how such small phenomena can create such a bright glow. Those tiny particles have a way to light up the whole night, just like you need one spark in you to take a leap.
It was so crowded there as everyone gathered around to witness this event. It was something so surreal that it felt nice to share with other people. Nature brings the community together, and this was as good of an evidence as any. I felt so grateful to be able to experience something like that, something that brought me so much joy and wonder about the power of nature and to what extent it could go to. It was also nice to be able to share it with my loved ones and as I curled up with them on the ground, lying down and staring at nature’s show, somewhere, something struck the perfect chord to make this the perfect moment and place to be.