Challenger Anniversary


 It was thirty-six years ago. I wanted to be an astronaut…. In retrospect, probably not the best career for a girl who isn’t afraid of heights but who is like a cow when it comes to her fear of coming down from said heights. We were in the auditorium at Stewart School. I knew my science… and I knew something was wrong. I stood up and told my teacher to turn off the tv in the front of the auditorium, that we were watching people die. It’s not that he didn’t believe me— it’s that it was too much to take in. He held my hand while I shaked, I remember.

I didn’t want to be an astronaut after that. But my desire to learn about the cosmos, my quest to reach new heights, my hope to inspire others—these still remain.
The Challenger was my coming-of-age moment… along with Chernobyl. From that year on, I became a newspaper reader. It wasn’t just outer space that mattered for learning— it was also the people and systems here on the earth.

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