astronaut
[ as-truh-nawt, -not ]
noun
a person engaged in or trained for spaceflight.
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Kelly
ran into the room yelling at her two older brothers.
“Guess
what?” She cried happily. Her brothers,
Jack and Brian, looked to their younger sister, waiting for her to deliver the
news. “I know what I’m gonna be when I
grow up! I’m gonna be an astronaut!”
“You can’t
be an astronaut.” Jack, the eldest, said.
“Yes, I
can!”
“Nope. You’re a girl. Everyone knows girls can’t be astronauts.”
“That’s
not true! My teacher said so. She said that girls can do whatever boys can.”
“Oh
yeah? Well when was the last time you
heard of a girl going into space?”
Kelly
could not answer that. Of course, she
was only six, and had not heard of any astronauts, regardless of gender. Jack knew this, of course, but he still took
it as a win.
“That’s
what I thought.” He said triumphantly.
“Girls
can to be astronauts!” Kelly screamed.
“No they
can’t.”
Brian
tuned them out. He had heard this kind
of argument plenty of times before. He
had even been a participant for a large number of them. He knew it would just be Jack saying no, and
Kelly saying yes. And so it fell to him,
the middle child, to stop the argument before Mom and Dad came into the scene.
He took
out his trusty tablet and began the search.
It did not take long. He quickly
found the information he was looking and cleared him throat loud enough to get
the older boy and younger girl’s attention.
“65.” He
said.
Both his
younger and older sibling stopped and looked him.
“65
what?” Jack asked.
“That’s
how many astronauts have been girls.”
“See? See, I told you.” Kelly said with a huge grin
on her face.
“What? No way, let me see that.”
Jack
scrambled over to his brother and read the article presented.
“Yeah,
well, you know how Mom and Dad say you can’t trust everything on the internet,
right? I bet this is one of those things. It’s probably wrong.”
“Yeah,
but you don’t know, right?” Brian asked.
Jack could
not answer. Kelly joined Brain on the couch,
and she leaned over his arm. She pawed
the screen, trying to read what was written there. She was not able to understand most of the words
but seeing all the pictures was enough.
“It’s
real.” She said. “See? They’re wearing space suits and everything.”
“No
way. Girl’s don’t do that stuff.” Jack
insisted. It was an empty statement,
even to his young ears.
He went to
see the screen, watching his sister scroll up and down. Jack was already nine, and he could read well
enough to know what the article said, even if there were words he did not know.
“Okay,
fine.” He admitted. “I guess girls can
be astronauts. But that doesn’t mean you
can be one.”
“Yes I
can.” Kelly said.
“Kelly,
being an astronaut is really, really hard.” Brian said. “You have to work hard at a lot of stuff and
practice a lot.”
“I can
do that.” The young girl said firmly. “You’ll
see. When I grow up, I’m definitely going
to go and fly around in space and all kinds of cool stuff. You’ll see.
And I’m gonna go tell Mommy and Daddy, just so they know too.”
She dashed
off, leaving her brothers alone.
“I bet
she gives up after a month.” Jack said.
Brian
just shrugged and went back to reading on the tablet. Even though he had little interest in the
career, he still thought that having an astronaut in the family could be pretty
cool.
******************************
I was a weird kid. I didn't want to be a fireman or a race car driver, or even an astronaut. No, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a lobster man. I have no idea why, but that was what I wanted to be. I did not become a lobster man.
Also, if anyone is interested, a bit about female astronauts.
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