Emily Fischer

An astronaut. That's what I wanted to be when I grew up for the longest time. I can't even recall when it was that this became my goal in life, or how it started. All I know is that from before I can remember until I was thirteen my goal in life was to go into outer space. Some could say I was addicted to this idea. My room was space themed, I owned and had read pretty much every single book with pictures that had ever been written about outer space, and I could recite all kinds of random, fascinating facts about the world above. When I went into fourth grade, my dad took me on a trip to the Kennedy Space Center for the weekend. I will always remember this visit because that much time alone with dad was unheard of in a family of 6. I remember running around the park looking at all of the exhibits in excitement, and sharing every piece of information I had learned about them. I got my picture taken with a person in an astronaut's suit and we went to presentations given by astronauts who had actually spent time in space—my heroes! The most exciting part of that entire weekend, and what brought my desire to become an astronaut to the next level was eating lunch with an astronaut. When my dad told me that I was about to sit down with a real live astronaut and would be able to ask him anything I wanted, I nearly died. This was all too much for a little nine year old girl. But I was so thrilled! I recall talking to the astronaut (Ken Cameron—I'll never forget that name either) and telling him all about my plans to do what he did (which of course involved graduating from Harvard first). I got my picture taken with him and he autographed it. When I got home, I excitedly hung it on my wall to add to my collection of space memorabilia and proudly showed it off to anyone who had enough patience.

However, in eighth grade, my little world came crashing down. We were sitting in class one day and the counselor came in to talk to us about high school and life after that. He finished his presentation by going around the room and asking everybody what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were fire fighters, soldiers, doctors, nurses, teachers, you know, the usual stuff. Then he reached me. When I announced to the class that my dream job was to become an astronaut, everyone started laughing. I will never forget that day, because it was the day I gave up on my dreams. I went home and started tearing down all of the NASA posters I had up and from that day on, b