Space Training

When I was in kindergarten all of the kids that were considered "smart" enough got to read this series of comic books about an astronaut in space, or at least that's as much of the story as I know because I was not one of the "smart" kids. I remember feeling bad because I wanted to know how to read the little book and I was not allowed to. I wanted to find out what happened to the plucky astronaut exploring space, fighting aliens and possibly making friends with a talking dog which he would make his partner. I really wanted to read those books, now I don't even know the title of them, but at the time i was obsessed with space travel and those little books.

I remember one day all the teachers in school being excited and our teacher bringing a television into the classroom and telling me that we were going to see real astronauts and a teacher go into space.

It didn't really work out the way they said it would.

I remember very clearly watching the Space Shuttle Challenger explode and the teacher quickly walking across the room and turning off the television - we then got to go to recess early. I was 6.

This morning I found myself at the age of 31 reading a news story about the second to last space shuttle launch in United States history for the foreseeable future. The story stated that NASA celebrated the arrival of the space shuttle Endeavor reaching its proper orbit by sending music to the crew and the song they chose  was "Drops of Jupiter," by Train.

I look back on my life and what could have been - had I been smart enough to read in kindergarten, had those books and that disaster not spoiled my enthusiasm for space travel  - who knows I might have worked really hard and with a little bit of luck I might have actually become an astronaut. But knowing that all that hard work, patients and training would eventually lead to me being trapped in a small tin can listening to that shitty music tells me that I know I have made the right choices.