How Sci-Fi Daydreams Got Me Through High School

(And Why I Still Think About Them Today)

Back in high school, I had two constants in my life, a long bus ride, and a head full of space exploration ideas.

Every morning and every afternoon, I’d stare out the window, imagining distant galaxies, faster-than-light engines, alien civilizations, and the quiet hum of a ship’s command deck. While the bus bounced along country roads, I was somewhere else entirely, dodging asteroids, solving quantum puzzles, or trying to save Earth from destruction.

I wasn’t trying to escape real life. I was trying to understand it.

I Daydreamed with Purpose. Some people doodled in notebooks. Some read books. Some people studies, I built trilogies in my head.

And when I got home, the daydreaming didn’t stop. Episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation and The Original Series were almost an obsession. I would rewatch them, memorize them and live them. And in between, I was busy building models of the Enterprise, Star Destroyers, and Klingon Battleships. Each piece I glued in place felt like I was adding something to my own personal universe.

At the time, I didn’t think of myself as a writer. I didn’t even know if I’d ever finish a book. But there was something incredibly grounding about dreaming up characters, giving them missions, and imagining how they’d react when everything went wrong. Without realizing it, I was learning how to tell a story More than that, I was learning how to feel a story.

It sounds ridiculous, but that old yellow school bus was my first creative environment. There were no keyboards, no outlines, no notes. Just my thoughts, the motion of the wheels, and the soundtrack of the engine buzzing like background noise on a flight deck.

And when we hit potholes? I just imagined we’d gone to warp 😉 Those daydreams never really stopped. They changed, sure, got more refined, more technical, more grounded in science, but the heart stayed the same.

That same kid with his nose against the window eventually grew up and published Galaxy’s Child, the first in a trilogy that’s been floating in my mind for decades. It’s funny what sticks with you. Sometimes it’s not the lessons in the classroom that define your path. Sometimes it’s what you imagine when no one’s watching.

Ever spent a bus ride building a universe in your head? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment or share this post if it reminds you of your own early dreams.