We’ve all heard the phrase “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist” when talking about something that is commonsense. Well I’m here to tell you that it did take a rocket scientist to remind me of some commonsense during my recent visit to NASA.
I was standing on the grass staring at the famous countdown clock while the Atlantis Shuttle waited patiently in the background to make it’s ascent into space. An ordinary looking gentleman came up with his camera in hand and asked me to take a picture of him with the historic backdrop. When I handed him back the camera he looked at my “TweetUp” visitor’s badge, and a puzzled look came across his face.
“Where are you from?”
After a few minutes of chatting he revealed that he was one of the NASA’s scientists, a physicist to be exact, and worked occasionally with dignitaries. He pointed to a white building off in the distance. “I work over there on the second floor. I usually don’t come out to the area of the clock for these launches, but this a historic one.” I stayed and chatted it up with him for a while, allowing myself to be regaled with stories of some of his experiences, wondering if perhaps he was a tour guide pulling my leg (he wasn’t—I saw his badge and “googled” him!).
We could have let our conversation gear toward space and NASA secrets (like where they hid the alien body—you know they have one!). Instead we talked about life in general. My NASA guy was an immigrant, and had come to the United States where he took advantage of education. Besides being married to a doctor, his daughter was in an Ivy League school. It was through these eyes that he commented on the changes at NASA. “Change can be good,” he said. He noted that if hadn’t been open change when he came to a different country, with its new language and culture, he wouldn’t have had all the opportunities that he did—he wouldn’t have been a NASA scientist, something so many could only dream of. Neither of us felt strongly pro or con about the changes in the future; however I understood what he was saying. Change must come, and it’s better to greet it with an optimistic smile.
He was proud to talk about the accomplishments of his daughter. “You just want your kids to do better than you,” he said. I told him I could understand. My father is an immigrant, and he was determined that I’d see more of the American dream than he has. I wondered how a NASA scientist’s daughter could upgrade from a NASA physicist, but I didn’t ask. I just appreciated that all fathers want the same thing—the best for their children.
My NASA encounter reminded me that all of mankind’s greatest achievements are nothing without someone to pass them along too. And sometimes, just maybe, we’ll have to accept change and move out of our comfort zone to accomplish great things. I think of all that I learned during this wonderful experience at NASA, it will be these commonsense reminders that will stick with me.