I didn’t plan it. I didn’t push it on him. It was something
he started to take interest in at school. When he started telling me about what
he was doing, I thought “He’s just like me.”
At the age of twelve, my quest in life was to become an
astronaut. It was just before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that took
the life of school teacher Christa
McAuliffe that my interests began to sway toward Astronomy. The stars were
all I could think about. I studied the constellations, the phases of the moon
and anything else I could get my hands on within books. I stayed outside at
night just to look at them.
When I was in sixth grade, there was no internet and no
readily handy ways to get information quickly. To do that I would have had to
walk to the library for encyclopedias or books however my parents wouldn’t let
me venture out alone. Fairfield, Maine was much different from where I started
to grow up. Milford, Connecticut was a busy city while Fairfield was a small
town. We had moved a few years earlier and mom and dad were still adjusting. My
parents held onto the fear of their children being abducted in the streets.
Going any where alone was forbidden. My knowledge was limited on space but I still thirsted for it.
Fast forward to today, my son, Anderson, has a uncanny
interest in space just like I had. In fourth grade, he wrote small books on
almost every planet and the moon for his fellow students to read. He wanted
them to learn about them as much as he had. They were complete with title and
pictures.
It hasn’t stopped there. We now watch the rocket launches on
our television, movies that involve space (Star Wars, October Sky) and watch the meteor
showers at night. The Perseid Meteor Shower is coming up this weekend. We won’t
be able to watch it together on Saturday but we will on Sunday night. That will
involve laying in the back of the car under blankets to stare into the night
sky together and talk…about everything.
These are special moments with him I’ll never forget. Yesterday,
I remembered getting in the mail when I was twelve a copy of a book that had to
do with Dr. Robert Goddard, the engineer and physicist that built the first
liquid-fueled rocket. Someone in my family, and I can’t remember who, sent me the
book of the Goddard Rocket and Space Museum in Roswell, New Mexico. I recall
reading it over and over. I found it this morning and sat down with Anderson.
I went on to tell him that my dream was to become an
astronaut like him. Right away he told me I couldn’t do that because I get motion
sickness. He is right. I can’t.
But he CAN.
I gave him the book I cherished so much and, with tears in
my eyes, I told him “I want you to always be what you want to be. Never let
anyone tell you that you can’t. Because you CAN.”
On the back of the book something caught his eye. “Mama,
look!” I followed his finger to the back
cover.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The back cover had a red
stamp on it that read:
COMPLIMENTS OF THE U.S. SENATE
COMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES
CHAIRMAN: SENATOR CLINTON P. ANDERSON, NEW
MEXICO
Clinton is the town where we live and, of course, his name
is Anderson. He became so excited and said “I think this is what I’m supposed
to do.”
I think it is, too, and I’ll do everything I can to help him
fulfill his dream.
