Teacher: You are given a sentence in Japanese. Your job is to translate the Japanese sentence into English.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? If you are still confused, see the following example:
第一にキリバス共和国が彼ら自身の利益になると理解したからです
Solution: And it was primarily because Kiribati realized that this was in their own self-interest to do this.
Reason: The Japanese sentence is correctly translated into English, because the meaning is preserved.

Now, solve this instance: その瞬間 ― ３万人そこそこの小さな町で宇宙は広大でそこで何かを探すとはどういうことかを知りました
Student:

Show your work and conclude with the exact phrasing "Therefore, the final answer is [answer]." where [answer] is just the final number or expression that solves the problem.
user
It was at that moment, in that very small town of 30,000 or so, that I truly appreciated the vastness of the universe and the searching we might do in it.