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I think there were a lot of reasons I
wanted to be an astronaut. As long as I

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can remember, I've wanted to be an
explorer. I wanted to explore. I want to

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explore. I have always had a sense of
adventure. I loved being outside, I loved

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discovering new things. I wanted to be an
astronaut because I've always been very

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curious about the world around me and
because I've always wanted to explore

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that world. This is the logical extension
of all that. You know, when I learned

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about the explorers back in elementary
school and junior high, I thought, "Wow,

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that's so exciting to go step out and
venture into new land." And there's no

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greater place for me to start exploring
and going further than as an astronaut.

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Since I was a little kid, being an
astronaut is all I ever wanted to do.

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Growing up in Houston, NASA was a part of
my life early on. Ever since I can

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remember, I've loved aerospace. As a young
kid, around six years old, I got to watch

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STS-1 blast off and that is really what
sparked my passion for spaceflight. I

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didn't always want to be an astronaut. I
don't think I really realized it until

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partway through college or even after
college. I think it's a child I wanted to

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be an astronaut because that seemed to
be a popular thing to say, that you wanted to be

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an astronaut. And as I got older, I think
it evolved into more the idea of getting

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to be part of something where you're
pushing the bounds of human knowledge

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and exploring the unknown. I wanted to be
an astronaut

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to combine two passions of mine. One of
which was technical problem solving,

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which I did as an engineer, and the other
was operations – I used to do search and

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rescue. And so, I always had these two
loves and I thought that being an

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astronaut was a way to both train for
and work on operations, but also solve

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technical problems. I've always liked
science, math, technology. Those subjects

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have just naturally what I've gravitated
towards. I wanted to be an astronaut

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because I was excited about working on a
team, doing amazing things that

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before. The camaraderie and the team
aspect of it, you know, NASA is one of the

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greatest examples of what you can do
with a team of people working together.

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And so I think all those things appealed
to me. I have always been passionate

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about space. There's something about
space that has always interested me and

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pulled me and inspired me. And the chance
to work for NASA and for the

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International Space Station and wherever
our space program was going, to me just

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seemed like a chance to be part of the
ultimate, field work endeavor. I wanted to be

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an astronaut because I wanted to
continue to be a part of something

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bigger than myself and contributing to
human space exploration is a challenge

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that I just couldn't pass up. I thought
that space exploration is one of the

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most inspiring platforms to be able to
leave a positive contribution. But, most