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what made you pick mechanical

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engineering

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um

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it was the most i think mechanical

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i'm i think i'm very visual

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and to me chemical engineering was not

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visual electrical engineering was not

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visual but mechanical for the most part

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although then i started studying heat

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transfer which which ended up being my

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favorite

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and that part of it is not visual but

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you know originally looking at all the

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disciplines of engineering mechanical

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was the closest to to the way my brain

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thought

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at the time and we did not i may have

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chosen aerospace engineering but the

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university of north dakota did not have

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that as an option which i think is fine

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because i think a mechanical engineering

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base

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can take you a lot of directions and

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obviously it can go to the aerospace or

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biomedical

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area

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so but mostly i think it was because of

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the visual nature that at least i

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anticipated it would be at the time when

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i chose

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so does that mean that when you have

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time you're good at fixing things like

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at home

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um

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i can yeah i don't know if you know i

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don't know if i'd qualify myself as good

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at it or not um

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the fact that you can

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well you know i just actually i actually

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really never knew that about myself

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because in my family we you know we

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called somebody they came they fixed it

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and it really wasn't until i was

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training for station that i said oh

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using tools it's just not that hard yeah

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and fixing it exactly so i remember the

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the first time i changed a tire on my

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car in fact i was an undergraduate

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student at the time and

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my car had a flat tire and i'm at my

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apartment i have to do something i was

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like well

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and and i remember some of my friends

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well why didn't you call

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there's directions

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you know i followed the directions and i

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was surprised how easy it was this is

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really really simple to change this tire

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and why didn't i do it when i was in

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high school i could have you know it's

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that simple but it just it just wasn't

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something i did and

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and i i wouldn't say that i've done a

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lot of fixing things you know

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you know a lot of times it's the balance

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of do you have the time to do it

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or the money to pay somebody you know

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even though you have the capability to

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do it you just don't because there's

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other things you'd rather do but

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i feel that i could

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if i needed to

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a lot of things

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i mean the fact that you're up there

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fixing things on the space station i

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mean things break things need maintained

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and the fact that you're up there

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doing it with your

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hair all big and wild

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is really going to speak to a whole

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generation of girls who are just going

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to think it's really normal to be the

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one that fixes things that's great i

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think that's great

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i hope that what we do in space can

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reach those girls that may not think

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that that's a possibility

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what do you what do you think it'll be

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like to be the only woman on the crew

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well i was you know for sts-124

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and

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actually having started engineering when

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i was

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18 19 years old

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i was always one of 20 or fewer females

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oftentimes the only girl in the class

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sometimes one of two or three girls in

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the class

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my engineering graduating class

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i don't know somewhere between 15 and 20

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percent of us were females and so it's

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just normal to me

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it doesn't seem unusual and i think just

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because

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you know starting at that age i was

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in groups where it was mostly mostly

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boys or men

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it doesn't seem

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unusual to be a part of a crew that i'm

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the only female it's kind of standard

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for the way i've known things to be

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what do you think girls today need to

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know that they don't know like what

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would you encourage them about

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i think it's important the girls know

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they can

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person

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they can still enjoy girl things

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you don't you know just because you like

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girl things to sew you like pretty

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dresses whatever it happens to be you

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can still be

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the smart person who can figure things

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out and who can get dirty and fix things

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and

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you don't have to be one or the other

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there's a combination that you can be

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and i think that's important for girls

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to know that they

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there might be a perception that if you

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choose engineering

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you're you're not you're giving up

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something i don't know and and i just i

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hope the girls don't think that but if

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they do i would like to be able to show

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them that

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you can be both

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it's possible

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what about having a family do you think

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you have to choose

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no

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i don't think you have to choose i think

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it's important that

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you have

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you know that your husband is obviously

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on the same page

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and and believes the same the same way

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that you do about it and

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supports what you're doing but

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i think absolutely it can work

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you can be a supportive mother be

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a good mother

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and still