Astro-Nut 👨🏽‍🚀

I can remember as a kid always having a love for outer space. Space was something that I found fascinating thinking that we are on the ground, but something definitely is happening above us in the sky. Is someone looking down at us, thinking the same thing? I dreamed of becoming a Astronaut or Top Gun himself. Sharing a room growing up with my sister and cousins for many years in bunk beds made for 5, even though I’m sure the store sold it as a 2 person sleeper. My Mom made sure I had space man sheets or anything dealing with planets. The true visionary, the Monarch of our clan, and I give her the credit and fruition, and God’s will, to overcome against all odds the platform we were currently dealt.

Life can be full circle sometimes, as I never became that astronaut or that Top Gun Fighter Pilot. But, that desire to go to space still manifested itself into my psyche. Growing up in brick city ” My pet name for the tall buildings that surrounded my neighborhood, that grass was a rarity” The smog and pollution was always so thick that the stars were just glimmers of their true existence and fire. But when I would go to my grandparents in the Smoky Mountains of West Virginia, for the summer, is when my imagination would run wild. The moon the stars all came alive and danced across the sky as I imagined and hoped they would be in actual life. It was like being in a front row seat at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Lincoln Center, for a major symphony with the stars and planets performing across the black backdrop of the sky. The vivid colors not distorted by the distraction of pollution, now replaced with brilliance and endless places to gaze and ponder. My curiosity has always been peaked on the alluring question- “Is there life out in space?”

Giving up on my dream to be a fighter pilot as my eyesight wasn’t 20/20 at the time. Not really having many role models to exacerbate and show me that anything was possible in my life. Looking at brochures and going to the movies, I didn’t see anyone that looked like me. I gravitated to the next best thing that I had access to, which was model airplanes and putting together things. Thank God my Mom saw this light in me and fed it purposely, skillfully and lovingly, even if money was extremely tight. I was on a path to become an engineer, but had no clue at the time. I remember having the chickenpox in the 2nd grade and forced to stay home from school alone. Bored out of my wit and feeling like I couldn’t read another book, I did the next best thing. I did what any curious kid my age would do right? I decided to take the TV apart and see if I could put it back together. As you can imagine that didn’t go over well with my Mom and I’m sure the TV wasn’t thrilled either, lol. But little did we know that this was the beginning of a movement that would take me all over the world, expanding on my hopes and dreams and aspirations to one day support mankind’s quest for space flight and exploration in multiple platforms and projects. There were many pitfalls growing up as we were forced to move to a place that didn’t value the mind of each child equally, which left me many days/weeks/months doing busy work while other kids actually were learning. My Mom working two jobs, had no idea what was taking place and the ramifications were slowly starting to build up. My learning aptitude was far behind the kids in my class, and I probably was the best coloring book expert in my class, because THAT is what I was given to do in a corner in the back of the classroom. Once my Mom finally caught wind of what was taking place, we moved yet again to a better school system and better walk of life for us. This time it was different. Everything felt different, and I met a teacher who changed my life. Ms. Simpson was an angel on this earth and would stop at nothing to make sure I was at the proper level with my class and never gave up on me. We met after school, on weekends at the library and even at parks and I have fond memories of having dinner at her house, waiting for my Mom to pick me up after work, feeling like my brain was about to explode. She had no idea but it sparked a revolution in my head that maybe I wasn’t stupid as I was told so many times as a young child by my first taste of schooling. I’m just going to move forward past all the trials and tribulations and get to the present.

After working in the Aerospace industry now for 20+ years, being exposed to some of the most amazing things man has made and put in space. Respectfully given an opportunity to work on a project that embraces my desires as an Aerospace Engineer, looking forward to every day as it brings a new challenge, and a new perspective on various galaxies, millions of miles away. If I could phrase the term a “dream job”, I would say I’m living proof that dreams do come true, but not without sacrifice. So as I gaze at this picture rightfully named, “The Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy”, for its beautiful array of colors in a pattern that seems to dance across the star lit canvas, that we still know so little about. It’s a universe that holds billions of stars and is approximately 40 million light years away and I’m just a fraction of a larger microcosm that strive every day to learn something new about this continuum, we call “Outer Space”

-Astro-Nut 👨🏽‍🚀