Current Issue -

Same Sky

By By Elsa Propson, age 14 | Winter 2025-26

Staring into the silver-gleaming night sky, you’re met with something endless. Stars shimmer like distant memories, scattered across the darkness, while the moon hangs quietly, watching over the silent world. Planets wander like drifting souls, each carrying stories we may never know. In that moment, as your eyes trace the constellations, there is something that shifts inside of you. 

A strange and powerful stillness washes over your heart, a quiet so deep it drowns out your sorrows, regrets, and even time itself. The weight of the past, the anxiety of things that never were and never more will be, the noise of the day – all of it dissolves. You’re left with only awe, held between the earth and the heavens. It feels as though you are the only person alive, like this sky was made just for you. Almost as if the universe stopped, holding its gasping breath while you gaze upwards. And for that moment, the world doesn’t feel small, or broken, or empty – it feels yours. 

But as your mind wanders, you begin to remember: this sky, this breathtaking, infinite canopy of specks, is not yours alone. It stretches across oceans, mountains, and borders, bumping up against the lives of billions. Somewhere, on the other side of the world, someone is looking up too, with their eyes wide, their heart open, carrying their own burdens, and singing along to their own tune. They gaze into the same endless sky, seeking the same answers, and hold the same delicate hope.

And in that shared moment, across miles and time zones, languages and communities, you are connected, not necessarily by words, but by wonder. The sky doesn’t belong to anyone, but still, it belongs to everyone. A silent witness to our wonders and griefs, to every fleeting life and every lasting dream. And when we look up, we are reminded that we are never truly alone. 

Elsa Propson


Elsa Propson (daughter of Kristin and Scott Propson), an 8th Grader at Decorah Middle School, enjoys participating in extracurricular activities such as wrestling, cross country, track and field, swimming, mock trial, orchestra, and choir. 


    We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the question, “What do we have in common?” Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn

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