About Me & Blog Introduction

Astronomy student. Former high-school science teacher. Star Wars enthusiast. There are many words I use to describe myself, but before I share my list of descriptors I want to state the important one up front. It's a key part of who I am and how I approach life, and I figure I should establish this from the start so you know what to expect from me.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.

What does this mean? To anyone else, this just means I'm a Christian. To me, it means I try to follow the example of Jesus's life and aspire to have His attributes such as kindness, forgiveness, humility, love, charity, patience, and faithfulness. I learn about Him through studying the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and more. Yes, that does mean I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes we're known as the "Mormons", but I'll save the discussion of that name for another time). I know that might bring up many assumptions, stereotypes, and even prejudices about me, and I totally get it. But I want you to know what it means for me to be a disciple of Christ--as I've learned about who Jesus is and what He's all about, and as I do my best to follow his teachings and example of living, it's shaped my life in countless wonderful ways. Part of creating this blog is to document those moments that have happened and will happen. That's not the only thing I'll be writing about, though. 

I called my blog "My Mundane Fantasy" because I want to share my perspective of the wonderful, natural world around us. When you take the time to look, there's a lot more to what there is than just what there is. How could learning about the life of a main-sequence star give me personal motivation to finally do that thing I've always been wanting to do? What could understanding Newton's laws of motion tell me about how to act when facing difficult emotions? And can studying chemical reactions give you dating advice? I want to share how the mundane world around us is more than just what we study through science, but that we can also glean fantastical lessons from understanding the mechanisms of the cosmos.

But what else about me? Well, the short list is I am: a husband, a father, a student, a teacher, a gamer, a nerd, an astronomer. All of those words (and more; it's the short list after all) have great meaning for me. I plan on taking my first few posts to explore these in depth, but my first one will be about the last item on the list: astronomy.