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May
25
2012Week 1
Week one at NASA has blown by. I’ve met world class scientists, a few astronauts, laid eyes upon (the normally restricted) largest Moon samples on Earth, begun my ridiculous project, and watched history live as Dragon connected with the ISS today. One down, nine to go - we’ll see where it goes!
Also we are watching Apollo 13 in the old Mission Control Room where Apollo 13 was conducted in a few weeks. So that’s awesome.
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May
21First Day~
A mixed bag, to be honest. Probably would have been much better had I not been insanely anxious and slightly sick. But I’m glad - this place is amazing, and I feel like I’ll have a wonderful time.
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May
15Blast Off!
Tomorrow morning I’m driving across the country to start a brand new life internin’ at NASA for a few months. Everyone’s been telling me how proud they are of me, and how well I’ll certainly do, but that hasn’t stopped me from feeling queasy every time I’ve sat down and thought this is all coming up in just a few days. I have no idea if I’m prepared for this, but I’ll just have to try like everything else.
This is a big change, you know? The first summer I’ve really been away and off on some adventure without anyone else. Leading up to this, I had always pictured this moment as just the end of my time with everyone I knew and loved here instead of the beginning of a really important and hopefully wonderful part of my life. With this, I really should be able to start putting pieces together and begin to figure out what I’d really like to do with my life. My foot’s in the door for all sorts of opportunities down the road, and I have to take that as a good thing. Even though I know this is another break for us, deer, we’ll have a well-deserved time afterwards to reunite. It’s a lot like the night I first went away right before college, remember? It felt so silly coming back, like a moment I was foolish ever to doubt whether I’d have the chance to do it again. Don’t you worry now - we will. There’ll be so many more memories for us yet.
Until then, take the time to stay busy, have fun, and not get down on yourself too much. I’m just a phone call away! (I’ll allow you to be mopey the first few days and that’s it.)
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May
13
2012- Permalink
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April
29
2012
For the time you hastily took my hand as we ran through the screaming crowd two years ago, the time I sent you an awkwardly cute vulpix, the time we inched closer and closer for each slow dance a few nights later, and for the time we fell asleep on the couch that same evening, heads oh so conspicuously tilted towards one another. It’s for the time when I packed too much food, the time when the deers instead of dears began to come about, and the night where silly dogface led us to a backyard with a starry and heartfelt fate. It’s for the birthday surprise cd’s, the first of many silent walks around the pond, the bawling we did before I first went away, and the rush of wind that filled our lungs once I first came back. The night at neil hill, the dances in the dark, the thunderous night with mount thistle, the million car rides home with your hand in mine, and the few random places we hid with a blanket and without enough bug spray. The booms through our hearts on July 4th, the mushy ice in the Iowa rink, the mistakenly free biodome, and that hideously memorable night, freezing together in the car. For the quick, hesitant kiss at the New Year, for the promise of another beautiful year on the mark of anniversary number one. It’s for the long drives and longer periods between seeing each other, the crippling fears that creep up only when the other isn’t there to hold you tight, legs entwined, noses touching. For all the stories we’ve heard hinting at the inevitable tragedy of distance, how lives and love blur and fade and evaporate if the will just isn’t enough. For those nights when you’re convinced it’s finally happening, that the universe has won and it just can’t be done - but it’s too for those nights when the whispers of the other are enough to drive those fears away.
It’s about time to take a step back for just a moment, and lay it all out in front of you. Look at all we’ve managed to do. There were so many who said it couldn’t be done, so many whose simple words realized the possibility of my most atrocious fears. But we are, we are, shout it out for just a day for all it’s worth. These next stretches ahead of us are going to be tough, I know, but I’m ready as I’ll ever be for whatever happens next. For it’s these sorts of remembrances that make me smile during those cold nights away, that dry up tears and guarantee calm dreams; we’re somehow winning. And I don’t know about you, but I’m all for kickin’ and scratchin’ our way forward, onto the next big thing that we can use to convince ourselves the obstacle afterwards is just another bump in the road. I’m sure not giving up that easily. There’s still so much experience to be had, and in the distance I promise you it’ll be splendid indeed.
Happy Two Years.
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