Before coming into astro2110, I knew very little about astronomy. Now, after completing the course, my appreciation for astronomy has greatly increased. A few days before the semester started, one of my friends who is an astronomy nerd laughed at me for not knowing the phases of the Moon. I thought to myself, “I’m a CS nerd, why would I need to know the phases of the Moon”? I had forgotten just how interesting astronomy is as a whole. Never had I sat down and actually thought that there’s more to astronomy than just the phases of the Moon. There’s the Milky Way , and extremophiles, and dwarf planets, the Kuiper Belt, moons of other planets, constellations, nebulas, aliens, space missions, and much more. Learning about all of these topics and more makes me excited to learn more in the future. The galaxy is way bigger than I thought, and we’re just a mere speck in the midst of it all. Which means that I still have tons more to learn about what’s here on Earth and what is out there beyond the stars. Watching the lecture that Alan Stern gave about the New Horizons mission visiting Pluto refueled my curiosity about space exploration. The fact that we don’t know what’s out there and we’re constantly learning new things has influenced me to continue to keep up with astronomy in the future. Now I can go back to my friend and tell him every single one of the phases of the moon and maybe even throw one of my own astronomy questions at him.