I strode across the large hall, cutting through the endless sea of people who stood between me and my destination, always following that sign. Sometimes, when someone in front of me turned off to see the other exhibits, I would catch a glimpse of the burnished gold letters etched in the polished plaque that heralded the marvel it stood above. At those moments, I would catch my breath, thinking that I had finally reached, but then I would be disillusioned by the throng of tourists surging back in front of me. I would sigh, and tread on.

Just when it seemed like I was destined to be eternally cut off from my goal by over-enthusiastic families blocking everyone for a “quick” picture of their countless five-year-olds, my eye was caught by a metallic flash.

I looked up, and there it was - the celebrated “Moon Rock” - the minuscule piece of dirt that alone was enough to prove that humans could, and would, conquer the Universe.

Looking at the fragment of the unknown, alien world 238,900 miles away that we Earthlings call the Moon, I marveled at the distances that it must have traveled - first while being formed, then while orbiting the Earth for millions of years, then being brought to Earth by human hands, and finally being brought to rest here, at the Smithsonian. As I studied its craggy features, I thought about all that it must have seen in its lifetime, and the impacts from the various asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that it must have withstood.

In a flash, I realized a fact that I had been struggling to take in all along.

Distances can be bridged, irrespective of magnitude, direction or circumstances. Perceiving the distance to be bridged is the key, regardless of the distance others perceive to be existing between oneself and their objective.

All along, I had felt severed from everyone I loved who were in India. Just looking at a globe would bring tears to my eyes, for I would realize that 7,301 miles were what lay between US and India. Looking at that infinitesimal fragment, I finally understood life is all about moving from one place to another, and being faced by obstacles along the way. Life is not about the destination, but about the journey, the trials, the triumphs, everything that is along the way. Even a century ago, humans would have never dreamt of leaving the surface of their home planet, and today, people from all walks of life can walk up to the confirmation of our undying tenacity - a fragment of another world, which alone is enough to bridge the infinite distances between our world and its own.

I said to myself, “Surely, if a diminutive piece of dirt is enough to withstand countless knocks, and in the end even merge two worlds, then I, with today’s e-mail, phones and social networking, can be with my friends and family in India, at heart!”

One image that flashed into my mind was a picture from the novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. In it, an ant has to walk the length of a string to reach its destination. However, when the two ends of the string are brought together, the ant just needs to take a step and it will have arrived. This vivid portrayal shows how physical distances don’t really matter, if they can be somehow warped by time-travel, communication, or even just the belief that you are there.

When I was finally awoken from my reverie by an impatient tourist jostling for a look, I turned around to see my parents standing behind me, letting me observe the Moon Rock, for they knew my passion for astronomy. In the words of Miranda in When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead -

“...it was like an invisible hand reached out and snatched away my veil. And for almost a minute, I understood everything. When that veil isn’t hanging right down in front of a person’s face, a minute is long enough to realize a lot of things."