This is not an article about the push for STEM classes in school or to say that we should all pursue a career in the sciences.

This is an article about inherent fascination that I believe every member of the human species possesses within their DNA.

Because I struggle to understand how one can walk outside in a night full of stars in the sky and not be moved. How one complains about a messy room or not getting asked to prom when there are galaxies upon galaxies (literally. billions.) and stars exploding outside of our atmosphere. How do you not fall in love with the universe when you realize how insignificant you are?

To the teenager who doubts herself, struggling to find a place in this world and feeling that the chem test grade defines her even though she thought thermochemistry was really quite cool, and in turn is prompted to believe she is not a science person and should perhaps turn to cosmetology (please, no--do study cosmology, not cosmetology); I say to you, we are all science people.

We are all science people because we are all people.

An example of an extremophile is a thermus aquaticus bacterium that loves to live near oceanic hydrothermal vents. We are extremophiles. We thrive under harsh conditions; we write an essay faster and more efficiently when there’s an impending due date rather than a leisurely spring break week to work on it. We accomplish more than we should because we like testing our boundaries in order to break records. We create endless scenarios at night when our minds are racing and we know we should sleep but how can you sleep when you can’t stop thinking?

We are all science people because atoms never stop moving. The universe seeks disorder, ever-increasing entropy. And like the universe’s ever-moving particles, we cannot settle for stillness; we, too, seek adventure and disorder and energy and travel.

We are all science people because we are imperfect. Experiments are imperfect, tested over and over in order to attain a repeatable result. In life, we make mistakes, follow a series of precise steps that lead to a desired outcome. It can be elegant or messy. A series of reactions that occasionally produce vividly beautiful colors.

We are all science people because we cling to the hope that we will someday find someone who fits us better than the sticky ends of recombinant DNA. Who complements us like adenine to thymine, cytosine to guanine.

When we think back on prior qualities of ourselves and appreciate our growth and change, we recognize our own little evolutions. And when we feel how fate has naturally selected for this modern version of ourselves, this perfected product, that’s when we are reminded that we are indeed science people.

And at the end of it all, it's comforting to know that we will never fully understand the mystery of everything in biology and chemistry and physics but it is a noble act to at least try and pursue that knowledge. We--all of us--will never know everything there is to know about the mystery that is our lives, but the point of living is trying to uncover at least part of that secret and be thrilled by it.

So, yes, high school freshman who really loves books and wonders why things are the way they are and not otherwise (thanks, Kepler), you are a science person.

Please never stop embracing it.