✨ Sabrina: The Girl Who Gave Wings to Her Dreams

Shariq Ali
Valueversity

Some children play with toys, while others shape the future by holding on to their dreams.
Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski belonged to the second kind.

Born in Chicago, the sky was not just a blue canvas for Sabrina—it was a book filled with questions. When she sat in an airplane for the first time at the age of nine, no one could have imagined that one day she would not only fly aircraft but also try to reach the deepest secrets of the universe.

At the age of twelve, Sabrina made an extraordinary decision:
she decided to build her own airplane.
This was neither a school project nor preparation for a competition; it was simply the result of passion, curiosity, and hard work. Two years later, at just fourteen, she became one of the youngest pilots in the United States to fly an aircraft she had built herself—alone.

This was where the story took a new turn.

Sabrina realized that flying an airplane is an art, but understanding why things fly is science.
That question led her to MIT, where she chose physics as her field. Completing her degree in just three years, earning a perfect 5.0 GPA, and becoming the first woman in decades to top physics—these were not just numbers, but a declaration of the depth and breadth of her intellect.

But Sabrina did not stop there.

At Harvard University, she pursued a PhD in Theoretical Physics, working on some of the most complex topics such as gravitational waves, spacetime, and quantum gravity. Her research proved so significant that even a great scientist like Stephen Hawking referenced her work.

Today, Sabrina works at one of the world’s most prestigious research institutions, the Perimeter Institute (Canada), where she leads research on revolutionary ideas such as Celestial Holography—an attempt to understand whether the entire universe might be a vast hologram.

Being named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and gaining global recognition are honors in their own right. Yet Sabrina’s true strength lies in her message:

If curiosity is alive and effort is sincere, then age, gender, and resources do not become barriers.

Sabrina’s story teaches us this:
Dreaming is the first step,
but connecting dreams with knowledge, hard work, and patience

that is the real flight.