Book 1 Post 2

 I resumed reading about Mike Brown’s journey as he and his team came to discover “Object X” which came to be known as Xenon, the tenth planet. As he talks more and more about this discovery that he was sitting on, it becomes apparent that he is at a crossroads at the midpoint of the book about what direction he wants to take his life as well as this new discovery. This direction that he chooses will guide him into the next phase of his life especially since he is settling into a career path and deciding to marry his wife. I thought that this was relevant for college students reading this book because oftentimes at the end of college, most students will begin doubting their post-grad direction as they approach graduation. Some super-students are able to go full steam ahead towards their chosen career path with unwavering certainty in their decision, but a shred of doubt is commonly found in these meaningful decisions.

Beyond this decision, the next phase that the author endured was an obsession for his project. I would like to admit that I am also guilty of becoming a little bit obsessed with the work I will be doing, the game I just started playing, or the food I just started eating. But the author took this obsession to a new level as he began researching as much as he could and gathering as much data as possible without losing too much sleep. The major challenge in this scenario of discovering a plane or scientific discovery is the anxiety of waiting to see if someone else would find the same discovery and go public with it before you get the chance. He looked at historical data, and relevant trends, and even included expert opinions such as Charlie Kowal who was the individual responsible for discovering Pluto. With a huge help to all the other team members, Mike Brown discovered another planet, named Xenon.

 Now with a new planet under his belt, his life drastically changed. This is the type of success story that any other college student likes to hear. The man marries the girl of his dreams and goes to work hard every day to one day find something in the sky! The author’s passion drips off the page as I keep reading It surely gives me the confidence to trust the journey and rethink my own passions. Of course, the journey of life has obstacles, such as the author having to overcome the challenge of proving his planet to be real. However, everything works out in the end and there is no point in trying to prevent obstacles since there will be some sort of challenge that comes along later. For example, the author could not possibly foresee that in the future they would declare Pluto to no longer be a planet as well as Xenon. With all this being said, the author communicated his passion effectively to his audience thus creating optimism with a spark of inspiration.