I had taken Astronomy 201 because I was curious about humanity’s place in the universe. As a second semester senior, I didn’t need this class at all; I just wanted broaden my understanding of the world around me.
Deep down, I also wanted form an educated opinion on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It was hence interesting to learn about extremophiles, about solar, galactic, temporal and dimensional habitable zones, and that water was probably brought to Earth after its formation by a comet. It was amusing to debate about Drake’s equation, and frustrating to read that most of the extrasolar planets that we have discovered are inhospitable Jovian worlds. The question of Fermi’s paradox keeps me thinking and the fact that life sprang on Earth just few million years after the end of the heavy bombardment still surprises me.
All in all, I had a wonderful semester learning about the origins of our blue planet. Truth be told though, even after a semester, I am nowhere close to forming an opinion if life on Earth was just a fluke.
Island Earth 
Grader here:
That’s a hard question to answer, but hopefully you’ll keep up with your interest in astronomy. With the course behind you, you should have enough knowledge to read the astronomy headlines and news articles and form your own opinions about the big questions like whether or not Earth was a fluke!
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My thought isn’t so much that Earth must be a fluke, but that life in the universe doesn’t necessarily have to look the way it does here.
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