Welcome to Spotlight.
I’m Anne Muir.
And I’m Adam Navis.
Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a famous US scientist.
When he was a little boy, he lived in the big city of New York.
He had never seen the stars.
All the city lights made it difficult to see how many stars filled the sky.
One day he visited the Hayden Planetarium.
It was like a theater that taught about and showed different stars and planets.
He explained on the program NOVA:
“They turn out the lights.
The stars come out.
There is this voice: “We are now in the universe.
There are the stars.”
I was looking up.
I did not see anyone, I just heard this voice.
So it was like the universe was talking to me.
And there was the sky, unlike that which I have ever seen.
That can be a big thing for a 9-year-old.”
Today’s Spotlight is on the joy and mystery of experiencing something for the first time.
Seeing or doing something for the first time can shape the way we see the world.
It does not need to be something big.
It can be something simple like standing outside on a dark night and seeing the stars.
DeGrasse Tyson explained why seeing the stars was so important:
“It was like I was locked in a room my whole life and then somebody opened a window to
the universe.
Two years later my parents bought me my first telescope.
Then I could see the night sky.
If you have never looked through a telescope, and then you look through one for the first
time at the moon or at Saturn, it is amazing.
Saturn has rings!
The moon has craters!
These are things you may have heard about and read about.
But when you experience them, it becomes a special time in your life.”
Special times can happen in normal places.
Bridie Jabour lives in Australia.
She had never seen snow, but she wanted to.
She wrote about it for The Guardian,
“As I grew up, there were so many Christmas cards of snow-covered mountains.
Almost every Disney film had snow in it.
The American books I read as a young woman told of snow days when you got to stay home
from school.
Snow seemed almost magic.”
Then snow fell in a city not too far away from Jabour.
It was a two hour train ride away, but she decided to go.
Each time the train stopped, more and more people got on.
They all wanted to see the snow.
Soon, they started to see the snow falling.
Jabour heard one boy ask his mother if he was dreaming.
Jabour got off the train.
She saw a world that looked like it was covered in a white blanket.
She stepped into the snow.
She writes,
“I was surprised when my foot went straight through the snow.
I thought I would walk over the top of it.
I kicked it around a bit.
I was amazed at the softness.
I finally chose a place and bent down and touched it.
It was like soft ice!
I tasted the snow.
It could have done with a little flavouring.
I loved the snow.
I jumped in and I felt like I was in the world I read about in so many books of my childhood.”
For many people, seeing snow is a common experience.
People who live where it is cold, or in the mountains, may feel like they see too much
snow!
This can be true about other things as well.
Many people live near the coast.
The ocean or sea is part of their life.
But this is not true for Sharmila Dungana.
She is from the country of Nepal.
Nepal is high in the mountains.
So she had seen snow, but had never seen the ocean.
Dungana travelled to Bangladesh to study at university.
She knew she wanted to see the ocean.
She took her friend along to see it for the first time.
She described it for the organization Women LEAD Nepal,
“I stood there and looked out before me with total wonder.
How could water be so big?
No, big was a word far too small.
It was even bigger than big.
I shouted to a friend next to me ”Can you believe it?”
She also had a wide smile on her face.
I was in love with the ocean.
I never wanted to let go of the special time.
I could not hide the joy.
I liked the sea more than I liked the land, I decided.”
For many people, the first time they see something new is like seeing the world for the first
time.
They do not just see one new thing.
They see everything in a new way.
Dungana explained,
“I understood it is not the blue color that made an ocean beautiful.
It is not the sexy girls in swimming clothes.
It is not making a sandcastle.
Everything that makes an ocean beautiful is letting its size and holiness touch your heart.
It is loving the feel of every wave that hits you.
It is loving every grain of sand you step on.
And loving the cool air all around you.
It is loving every single drop of water that is the ocean.
It is being thankful to God for making up something so beautiful and so heavenly.”
We asked Spotlight listeners to tell us about a first-time experience.
Phan Tu Anh also remembered his first experience of the ocean.
He wrote on the Spotlight Facebook page:
“The ocean is a place I experienced for the first time.
I feel wonderful and miraculous there.
I really recognized that I am too small in the world and in space.”
Doing things for the first time can be frightening.
We do not know if the experience will be wonderful, bad, or frightening.
But the world is an amazing place, full of amazing people and experiences.
What about you?
Do you like to try new things?
What is something you would like to do or see that you have never seen before?
Tell us about it.
You can leave a comment on our website.
Or email us at radio@radioenglish.net.
You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook.com/spotlightradio.
The writer of this program was Adam Navis.
The producer was Bruce Gulland.
The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom.
All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.
You can listen to this program again, and read it, on the internet at www.radioenglish.net.
This program is called, ‘The First Time Ever’.
Look for our listening app in the Google Play store and in iTunes.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program.
Goodbye.