Last week, I was at my parents' house, sitting at their kitchen island and drawing a map for Convergence. So far, this is my hand-drawn world map, created on my iPad using Procreate.

As a science-fiction writer and someone who loves science in general, I appreciate it when stories take real science into consideration. No, it isn't necessary, I just like it.

However, I sometimes take it a little too far. For example, here's a little bit of my thought process moving forward with this map.

ME: Time to draw the equator. *starts drawing a red line through the middle*

BRAIN: Wait! If you draw the equator there, then the continent where your story is taking place is going to be really hot. You wanted more temperate climates for your main continent?

ME: Yeah … I did … hmm … *looks at a map of Earth* wow. There really isn't much land below the equator. Okay, well, I think it would be cool to have more landmass on this planet below the equator.

BRAIN: Above or below doesn't really matter. There's no "right side up" in space, so all that matters is which areas you want to be colder and which areas you want to be warmer.

ME: Wait … it doesn't matter? Hold on. *looks at a map of Earth again*

BRAIN: See? The direction North or South doesn't actually matter. You can flip them, and it doesn't change anything. The magnetic poles change every few hundred thousand years, too.

ME: Hold on. So who decided to draw the Earth like that? Who decided to draw the Earth "right side up" if it doesn't matter? Has anyone ever drawn the Earth the other way?

BRAIN: *tries to shrug, but it has no shoulders*

So I spent the next thirty minutes looking at maps of the Earth, and realizing that "North" being at the "top" of the world is an entirely arbitrary decision. We could have just as easily called it "South," and drawn all our maps with Greenland and Russia at the bottom, and Antarctica at the very top.

Which makes a lot of sense, because in space, there's no up or down, we just don't often have to think about it unless you spend hours and hours drawing maps. Modern maps could easily look like this:

Apparently, there were many cultures in the past that placed East at the top of the map instead of North for various reasons. Essentially, the use of the North Star for navigation and Eurocentric perspectives contributed to the development of modern maps, with Europe at the top center of it all.

I voiced this revelation out loud to my mom, and her brain just about exploded.