What’s in the Stars?: Students predict their lives by the next total solar eclipse in 2044

After the total solar eclipse on April 8, the next one won’t be visible in the continental United States until 2044. Here is a collection of students’ predictions about where they’ll be in 20 years looking up at the sky.

Sophomore Rachel Davis has her future planned to a tee — down to her pediatric specialty in medical school and what breeds her two dogs will be in her Colorado home.

Rachel’s straight A’s and self-assessed “math and science brain” led her logically towards becoming a doctor, but she’s been interested in working in medicine since she was five  — when, as family legend goes, she declared she was going to be a nurse after demonstrating more enthusiasm for hospitals than typical for a child. The “nurse” idea flatlined at age 12 when she realized she wanted a more commanding position.

“I wanted to apply myself more and take more of an in-charge role than I could being a nurse,” Rachel said. “And so that’s where I leaned towards being a doctor.”

After high school, it’s off to Montana State, where she’ll major in biochemistry after falling in love with the subject this year in Honors Chemistry. Then she’ll find a medical school and specialize in pediatrics — a passion she discovered working part-time as a babysitter.

“I think it’d be really good working with kids, being around kids and helping kids, but also being able to work in the medical field,” Rachel said.

In 20 years, she’ll be watching the eclipse from her house in the Colorado mountains, where her family often visits and where she’s always felt at home. In a perfect world, she’ll have two boys, one girl, a German shepard and a husky. 

“I feel like I’ve always felt most at peace in Colorado and I’ve always chosen mountains over beaches,” Rachel said. “And so I’ve never pictured myself living anywhere else but Colorado.”

She knows that mapping out your whole life at 16 isn’t usual, but so what? She understands what it’ll take, and she’s ready to take steps — taking Medical Health Science at the CAA next year and pursuing internships.

“I feel like I’ve always been kind of an over-planner, but I’ve always had this idea in my brain of living in Colorado and being a pediatric doctor and going to Montana State,” Rachel said. “And so I think the fact that that’s never swayed or altered has solidified my decision.”

For the past three years, senior Will Wood’s mornings have all looked the same — up and at ‘em at 5 a.m. sharp five days a week for Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps practice at Shawnee Mission North. Four days a week in the summer.

A typical workout? A 10-minute run, 150 sit-ups in three minutes, then seven sets of 60 pushups: 25 regular, 20 wide-grip, 15 diamond. 

“I really like the discipline that comes with it and the sense of purpose,” Will said. “It’s very structured.”

Through NJROTC, a high school program that teaches leadership, community and service, he’s earned a full-ride to Texas A&M for their ROTC program, where he’ll train to lead his own troop straight out of college in the Marine Corps as an Infantry Ground Officer. 

Not bad for a kid with no family in the military who took the NJROTC class his sophomore year on a whim.

“I was signing up for classes as a freshman and I read the course description, and I thought it sounded interesting,” Will said. “So I joined, and that led me down the path to joining the military.”

He’s bound to serve five years after college but is planning to stay for at least 20-30 years so he can serve his country, rise the ranks and eventually become a Marine Raider among the most elite troops in the US. 

“You always have something you’re supposed to do [in the military],” Wood said. “You’re working all the time. That just appeals to me.”

In the next eclipse, he’ll be watching from wherever the Marine Corps sends him — on whatever vessel or base he’ll be stationed at.

Junior Clayton Weaver was the kid with his nose lost in science kits, building radios and snapping together circuits. After having a lifelong attraction to math and taking a crash course in engineering his freshman year, he’s found his calling in electrical engineering, which he aims to pursue a degree for at K-State or Texas A&M.

“I’ve always enjoyed circuits and that kind of stuff,” Clayton said. “I enjoy engineering and math in general, so I figured it would be a good field to go into.”

Though his parents don’t work in STEM, he wants to find his own path, earning a bachelor’s and then an advanced degree so he can find a job in a field in tune with his innate nerdiness. After that, he’s willing to take a job wherever he can.

His exact future plans haven’t snapped together yet, and he likes it that way. But he has a rough picture of how he’ll be watching the next eclipse  — with a family of his own in the Kansas City suburbs.

“Where I live honestly doesn’t matter too much to me,” Clayton said. “But living near home would be nice.”