And the studying goes on …

I know it’s been pretty quiet here for the last few days, but I don’t have a whole lot new to report. I’m still studying, and that’s about it. I am looking forward to July 4. Although I’m Canadian, not American, that will mark Independence Day for me, as it’s the day of my Stats exam. The Space Studies prof is giving us a take-home exam, so I can do it long before then.

Speaking of Space Studies, I just got home from the university. We had a “shuttle landing party”, to watch Discovery land in Florida. Phil (the prof) brought Coke, cookies, apples and chips, and I was one of three students who were there. It was really exciting to see something that I saw leave Earth two weeks ago come back and land. I actually bounced on my stool when the landing gear came down. I was a little nervous watching the landing because the last one I watched live was when we lost Columbia five years ago, so I was really excited to see Discovery glide to a gentle landing and roll to a stop unscathed.

A week ago, I did a space tourism presentation to a Hospitality and Tourism class at the school where I teach. It wasn’t totally for the sake of sharing — I’ll receive five bonus marks on my final Space Studies mark for it — but one thing that stood out was the number of kids who said they’d love to go to space. Then they asked me.

It’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Even if I’d decided back in high school that I wanted to be an astronaut, my issues with all things mathematical would have interfered. When you toss in that I didn’t get my driver’s licence until I was 35, it doesn’t seem likely that I’d be off flying a multi-zillion dollar spacecraft. And yet … I don’t know.

In 1988, when I graduated high school, the image of the Challenger explosion two years earlier was still too fresh in my head. Even now I can still see it if I think about it. But when I look at the pictures of space, a large part of me is a little wistful that I didn’t find myself along that particular path.

Welcome home, Discovery. It’s nice to see you again.