Personal Story

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue70 1–31 March 2026

One of my first memories is my mom giving me a book about astronomy - it was actually quite a serious one, even though I was just 6 years old. I’m very grateful my parents have always treated my interests seriously, because, as we can see, my interest in astronomy stuck with me forever!

I grew up in Łódź, one of the bigger cities in Poland, and was quite a sickly child, so I didn’t have many opportunities to look at a clean night sky - spotting the Orion Nebula through binoculars was probably one of the best experiences one could get in my home city. But reading about space was enough for me, and the interest co-evolved with a love of science-fiction stories. I’m honestly surprised I am not a theoretical astrophysicist considering that.

I chose to graduate in computer science for my bachelor’s degree since I was worried about job prospects after pursuing a theoretical field like astronomy (and 2017 was the golden time for software developers - things have changed quite significantly since then...), but in 2020, as I graduated, and the COVID lockdown gave me a lot of time to think about myself and my future, I took a leap of faith and enrolled into a master’s degree in astronomy in Warsaw. I was expecting to struggle after my very engineering-focused degree in electronics, but to my surprise, I felt like I caught up with most of the material very quickly. That was the final confirmation of how large a difference being passionate about something makes. Studying astronomy was like a salvation during the difficult times of the pandemic - I had something to focus on, and to be honest, I did really well.

After finishing my Masters, I was absolutely sure I wanted to pursue an academic career and took another leap of faith by moving halfway across the world. Australia was not my only option for a PhD, but I thought it was worth taking this opportunity, that after moving so far away, the world wouldn’t feel large (and scary) anymore. It was a big change - I lived with my parents until moving here, and suddenly I was over 15 thousand km away... But nothing can compare to the adventure of getting to know a completely new world on my own and meeting so many amazing, caring friends, which made me feel at home here. I think I was right in thinking I would feel much stronger - now I know everything in the world is accessible, and that following my passion was the right call. Really caring about your work makes an indescribable difference in daily life.

Maja Jablonska