We debut a new Guest Writer post written by Saif Almutawa titled “We are the middle children”

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the middle child is always the unluckiest. He misses out on the benefits of being the eldest and the sympathy of being the youngest. Imagine being the middle child of a large family, that must suck right? Now imagine you are the middle child of humanity. Thats where we are right now.

For thousands of years man has been exploring Earth, mapping dense jungles and empty deserts, sailing vast oceans and conquering the unknown. Men have this instinct, this natural urge to explore, to discover, to know. Now we live in the age of the GPS and every telephone comes equipped with at least three maps. There are no more sea monsters in the ocean, there are no more mountains to climb and there are no more incomplete maps.

All we have left is space.

Due to the high ratio of atmospheric density to surface gravity on Saturn’s moon Titan, humans could fly simply by strapping on a pair of wings. There is water under the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Black holes, Wormholes, Quasars and Nebulae. The beauty of space, the magnificence of the great black beyond. It’s all out of our reach.

I remember being in class one day when someone asked how it was possible to find so many sailors to go with you on expeditions to America or India. For a man, there is no sadder feeling, than to see others set sail and explore while you watch from the shore. We’ll all be dead by the time space exploration hits its peak. We are sitting on the shore, watching, waiting for the ships to unfurl their sails and depart, ready to draw up a new map.

Author: Saif Almutawa

Find more of his work in his Blog here