Today is the 41st anniversary of the landing of the Apollo 13 mission. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I am a huge space nerd, and specifically am a NASA fangirl. The picture on this blog is of me at the Kennedy Space Center a few summers ago. I love NASA. I love the spirit of exploration and excitement that encompasses the projects NASA has put forward in the past, and has done within my life time. Having lived in Florida for much of my young life, I know the feeling of staring up wide eyed at the sky as I watch a tiny spec of light disappear into the sky. It is a feeling that I adore, and as the NASA program comes to a close, I am truly saddened. I think that we have a lot to learn from NASA, and specifically the Apollo 13 mission. The Apollo 13 mission has been described as a "successful failure". Though the ultimate mission of landing on the surface of the moon was not reached, I feel like we, as a fellowship of humanity, learned something even more valuable. The value of trying. That attempt, to launch humans into space, and then to fail is intensely brave. The fact that we brought back those men, alive, after all of the hardships that were faced, shows the true ingenuity of the human spirit. And ever more than that, is the fact that even after failure, we went back, and tried again.
I feel very similarly about my upcoming voyage. I am filled with the spirit of exploration, the need to leave my bubble and explore, the same pull that has us going to space. I am sure that at times while I am abroad I will have problems. I will fall short of the perfection I demand of myself, and I have issues. But the important thing, the thing that I have learned from the Apollo 13 mission and NASA in general, is that when I fall down, that I must get back up and try again. Instead of crawling back into my comfort zone, I will get back up and try again.
Speaking of attempts and getting back up, I sent off an very important scholarship application a few days ago and I would really appreciate some good Karma and lucky thought waves coming my way. I'll know on May 6th if I have been awarded the scholarship, so any pleasant thoughts would be awesome. Thanks in advance :)
In other news, I am a mere 2 weeks away from the pure bliss that will be summer vacation! The next 2 weeks will be hard, I have homework stacked up to my eyeballs and I may go crazy under the incredibly heavy workload that I now find myself under. But summer is so close, I can taste it!!
The next steps of my journey are going to be the VISA applications (which I printed off and am now looking at with an expression akin to those found on shocked LOL cats faces). They want to know everything about me and the form are super long and a bit pricey. I'll keep you all posted on the continued progress of the never ending paperwork that is my journey to Semester at Sea.
So... back to the never ending parade of homework that will be my next two weeks.
Until next time!
You have had an incredibly challenging year this time around and you have come out on top of it all! I am so proud of you!I have always kidded about living vicariously through my kids and their friends but it is never more true than now with you. I remember that first experience you had at Space Camp in 3rd grade and how devastated you were to learn you could not ever become an astronaut. The silent tears I shed in the dark corner of my room back then were the result of feeling helpless to make your dreams come true. But, as with most of your life, your unwillingness to ever give up has carried you to where you are now. You have many journeys ahead of you. I love seeing the world through your eyes! Bon Chance, mon cherie!
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