Who is the person behind "Life of a Space Geek"?

Do you ever sit and wonder about the type of person that has written an article that you have been engrossed in or a book you couldn't put down? What their background is, why they have written that particular article and what their favourite food might be? 

I gave some serious thought about what my first blog post would contain and whilst slowly drifting off to sleep I had a light bulb moment! 

So this is my introduction to me! Who I am, where I have come from and why I've taken the plunge to start my own blog. 

"Hi there - my name's Emma, a 35 year old from the UK, married and have one 7 year old son (pretty standard stuff so far). 

I've been told I'm very indecisive and "scatter gun" with my ideas - this often means I am never settled on the one activity. 

So far within the last 15 years I've tried a number of different ideas (or hobbies as my husband calls them). He has been subjected to me trying:

 - Jewellery making
 - Roller Derby
 - Painting and drawing
 - Nail Technician (yes I am qualified!)
 - Network marketing
 - Paper cutting
 - Ice skating (passed to Level 2!)
 - and lastly cake making and decorating

Now this last one in the list I'm actually pretty proud of, I went back to this "idea" twice as I have a genuine love for decorating cakes and some would say I am particularly talented at it too. 

I have always pursued things that fed my creative imagination, having left school at 16 and unsuccessfully fulfilling a career in graphic design "my hobbies" seemed to help me feed that desire to be creative. 

Now I bet you are thinking "How on earth did this lead onto the idea of a space blog?!"

Well 7 years ago I actually started another blog entitled "Life of a Prem Baby" (notice the similarities here?), which detailed my emotional thoughts and feelings after the birth of my son who was born 8 weeks early. It was a tool I used to write down the emotional journey I was going through. It was also my way of trying to help others going through similar experiences and to tell them "everything will be okay".

So you now know I have a love to write "stuff" down, but still this doesn't explain why I am writing about space stuff...

Okay so I have always been fascinated by the night sky. It amazes me every time I look up but yet my knowledge in this area is limited. 

A comment last summer to my husband of "I would love to learn more about this space stuff" and him replying with "well, why don't you then?" led me down the path of enrolling on my first ever degree!

I researched my options and came across a degree being run by The Open University. Going to a "brick" university wasn't an option for me, remember I'm 35 with bills to pay and a family to feed plus I work part time too.

The degree I came across appeared to feed my desire to learn more about the Universe - I found out I could obtain funding for this degree and within 2 weeks I was enrolled on the "BSc Honours Natural Sciences" degree following the astronomy and planetary science route.

So here I am 6 months later in the middle of my first year of a 6 year degree - yes you may think I am mad but I am genuinely happy that I have committed myself to the next 6 years of study! 

I want to share my journey with like minded people (which seeing as you are reading this would indicate that you may like to learn about space too!).

This blog will also provide me with an outlet for all this information I am learning, if I genuinely enjoy something I can talk about it non stop - much to the despair of my husband who really does try to listen and entertain me but who genuinely doesn't have any interest in what I am talking about lol.

So I will fill my blog with interesting facts I have learnt, events I'm going to or even books that I am reading with maybe a few photos thrown in too. 

Come and follow me on my journey to graduation - its going to be one hell of a ride! :)"