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i first started saying i wanted to be an

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astronaut when i was five years old my

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first real distinct memory of it was in

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first grade we were asked to draw a

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picture of what we wanted to be when we

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grew up and i remember drawing an

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astronaut standing on the moon with a

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flag in the background ever since then

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that's the only thing that i said that i

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wanted to be i think i was really

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fortunate in my life and throughout my

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career to have some exceptional mentors

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and role models i'm the youngest of five

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kids so i had a lot of older siblings to

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try to aspire toward and

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to sort of try to mimic throughout my

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life and they were all exceptional in

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everything they did so that was a good

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first start i went to brown university

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in providence rhode island and i decided

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to major in biology and i was pretty

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sure that i wanted to major in biology

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even from the beginning i also of course

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always had this interest in space so i

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continued to do space related activities

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throughout college

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training programs at kennedy space

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center the reduced gravity student

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flight opportunities program here and

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that kind of thing and then after i

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graduated from brown i went to the

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international space university in

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strasbourg france for their master's

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program so that's a year-long program

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that's interdisciplinary intercultural

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international they really emphasize

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these three eyes and so it was a

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comprehensive master's program about

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everything to do with space after that i

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actually came to the johnson space

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center to work for three years

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doing human physiology research so

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trying to

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understand all of the different

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processes and effects that microgravity

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and spaceflight have on the human body

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assisting with all those experiments

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which now of course i'll be a subject

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for

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but after three years i decided that i

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wanted to continue my education so i

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went to the scripps institution

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oceanography part of university of

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california san diego and i entered the

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phd program there and that was

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the beginning of my new area of research

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in looking at diving physiology so there

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at scripps i studied the diving

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physiology of birds and mammals so we

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did work in the antarctic

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going down to the antarctic for about

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three months at a time setting up a camp

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called the penguin ranch and studying

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these animals putting backpack recorders

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on them that measured different

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physiological variables the training's

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been great so far all that we've really

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imagined it would be incredibly diverse

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doing things ranging from taking russian

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class to flying in the t-38s the jets

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that we get our space flight operational

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training in we've had survival training

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in maine we've had planetary earth

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science training

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we've had some outdoor leadership

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training within knolls course all really

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outstanding aspects to

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get us into the groove for learning how

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to function here at nasa and in the

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astronaut office and eventually

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preparing us toward flight we've had a

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lot of classes on the international

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space station systems and sciences so

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learning how all the different

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components of the space station work

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together in order to support everything

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that's going on up there and so we've

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started with our extra vehicular our

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spacesuit training and the neutral

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buoyancy lab as well and that's been

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truly amazing you know you're in there

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and you're operating and you're trying

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to get your job done and do a good job

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and then you sometimes have to stop for

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a second and look back or look over at

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your buddy and say oh wow he's in a

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spacesuit i'm in a space suit too and so

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that that's really a dream come true

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it's been a really very very challenging

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part of the job but a very rewarding

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part of the job as well the thing that i

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like the most is that our training is so

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diverse we're not just sitting in our

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office behind a computer all day we're

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doing different things active things

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operational things different things each

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day and i think that really keeps us

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excited and interested and of course i

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mean these are things that most people

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dream about doing so we're incredibly

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fortunate to have the opportunity to do

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all these things i really enjoy the

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flight training aspect i wanted to be a

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pilot from the time i was a kid as well

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and since i didn't join the military i

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never thought i'd have the opportunity

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to fly jets

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but i did decide to get my private

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pilot's license and i started that even

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back in college and finished it while i

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was working here and got my private

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pilot's license in my instrument rating

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and really enjoyed flying um just in the