To The Moon And Beyond
When I was a small girl I had only one dream of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I devoured every TV show on it, my whole room was covered in posters of it. I read as much as I could on the topic, reading every book in the library on the topic.
I was going to Mars. At least, that was the dream. I dreamt of the great red planet. Knew all known pictures, studied maps and read every article that came out with new ideas on the planet. I had this huge National Geographic map right above my bed so I could see it day and night.
I am not even sure where the fascination started. It must have been a book I read or something. I was a book devourer and became fascinated by the idea of going up to the stars. I was going to be the first female astronaut that would land on Mars. The red planet had a special attraction on me. I studied details of all planets, but Mars was it for me. It seems reachable, but still mysterious at the same time!
I started watching movies and TV shows on the topic as well. One of the most impressive I found was From the Earth to the Moon, an HBO series with Tom Hanks. The show looked at a lot of the technical aspects, but also the lives of the first astronauts.
I liked the science behind it, though much of it flew over my head. But the other thing I loved was the mystery around it. What would one find when you finally got to Mars? What would it be like? Would there be life? My favorite movie became Mission to Mars, it followed those first astronauts as they explore the planet and find what they did not expect: intelligent life.
The End of a Dream
I dreamt about Mars for years, most of my time in elementary school was spend dreaming about it and looking up more information. But then I went to highschool. Not only did other things become more important to me, but I also realized I was horrible at science and math. Which was going to be a problem to say the least.
I still think though that my later profession has some grounds in this first love of mine. I became a historian because I love unraveling things, finding out about the unknown and still have a love for adventure, even though the ones I look at are in the past. The love for reading and finding out more about the world never went away....
It is really impossible to every normal person to go to Mars or Moon, unless you're an astronaut. But I hope, at the least possibility, if ever someone will go to Mars, I wish you're one of them. Nice article, by the way. Interesting.