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the seed for wanting to become an

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astronaut was planted way back when i

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was you know

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waist high to what i am now

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i grew up in western kansas

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and so

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we had beautiful night skies full of

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stars and so

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it was

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on on many a night i'd stare up there

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and just imagine the possibilities but i

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think it really became something that

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was tangible and something that i

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thought i could pursue once i got into

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the air force

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academy i got involved in a little bit

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of flight test

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and

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done before

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that you weren't exactly sure what the

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answer was going to be

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is something that i really gravitated

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toward and i saw becoming an astronaut

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as an extension of that testing is a

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team sport

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and it's not just the test pilot it's

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not just a

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test conductor in a control room but

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there are

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of people involved in test programs

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and all of you are trying to work

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together to get something done

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and so i think that you receive a lot of

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experience in how to work successfully

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in a team

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going down the path of test pilot in the

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military it's something that makes you

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competitive for becoming an astronaut

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growing up my heroes were my parents

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they they taught me

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uh

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right and wrong they helped shape me

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into who i who i am today

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they gave me the confidence to to dream

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big and chase those dreams following

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high school i went to the air force

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academy

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and majored in astronautical engineering

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there then i went to graduate school

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following the air force academy as my

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first assignment in the air force went

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to mit and was in course 16 the

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aeronautics aeronautics and astronautics

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department out there

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and so my training is is primarily in

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aerospace engineering i like to take

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things apart figure out how they work

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put them back together see if i can't

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make them do something they haven't done

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before the things that i dreamed about

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doing i'm i'm finally doing so there's a

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lot of you know there's a lot of moments

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where i'm pinching myself saying is this

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really happening

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but the training's been great

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getting to fly in t-38s and then turning

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around the next day and doing a training

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dive in the neutral buoyancy lab

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putting on

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a spacesuit

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and doing a a practice space walk is is

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they're very surreal moments you don't

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wake up one magical morning and decide

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i'm going to do it

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and i'm going to become an astronaut and

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then it happens a day later it's a lot

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of

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concerted

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commitment and it's a lot of small

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decisions that kind of build toward

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getting you to go in the right direction

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and there's a lot that's left up to fate

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so you have to try but you can't be

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afraid to fail i tried to to i applied

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three times uh was rejected twice

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if you give up on the first

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the first hint of failure

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then you're never going to accomplish

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what you want to accomplish and that's

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that's

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it doesn't have to be to become an

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astronaut anything in life

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you've got to be committed to achieving