My journey to science began with an unexpected change, a spark of curiosity that came to me in a freshman geology class. I didn’t want to be there - I had already decided on a career as a writer - but I had to take science, and geology seemed better than chemistry, biology, or physics. I could not have predicted that I would find myself falling in love with the complexities of our planet, all because of a class I was forced to take. If only I had known…