The title can say a lot about what this article would be about, but before we stress any further about the importance of following your dream or this high-achieving girl, we should ask ourselves one question: What on earth were we doing at the age of 15? Thinking about boys? Finding effective ways to remove body hair without having them grow back like a bush? Trying to ‘fit in’? Thinking about a good way to cheat your mathematics exam without getting caught? We’re pretty sure every girl had the same thought, or at least one of them mentioned.
This 15-year-old, particularly Abigail Harrison was talking to NASA employees and charting her future to be the first person on Mars. Impressed? On April 24, Abigail announced that she and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will be collaborating on a massive social media educational project. She will also act as Luca’s Earth liaison while the astronaut collects data and information aboard the International Space Station (ISS) this month.
This 15-year-old believes it’s important for the people of her generation to care about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
While our only knowledge of social media at the age of 15 was MySpace and Friendster, Abigail used Twitter to get in touch with NASA employees and then also turned it into a platform for her to write about her dreams and share pictures of her projects she was working on. “From there, it became a sort of a gateway to an “amazing community of people who are interested in space online”. Clearly, this little lady is one smart cookie.
Abigail is fairly confident in achieving her goal to be the first astronaut that goes to Mars:
As far as I’m going, I think it’s very likely that I will be the first astronaut to go to Mars. I think I’ll have to work really hard at it and that a lot of things will have to line up correctly for it to happen but that like I said, if you work hard at something, it can happen. And it will happen.
And how does this brilliant future astronaut juggles her future plans with her schoolwork?
It is kind of hard; I’d say that’s my biggest issue or not really issue — challenge is trying to find the time to do everything that I want to do, to do well at school, to do well at sports. I do year-round gymnastics, to have a social life, and then to also do this outreach program. It’s been incredibly time-consuming, the entire thing, but what really helps me to balance things and to know that it’s worth it and continue to work hard at it is that I believe so greatly this campaign will make a big impact on a lot of people’s lives.
We’re totally supporting the dreams of this bright girl, and if signing a petition to put this kid on space was a qualifying factor to be an astronaut, we’re giving a million signatures right now!
Read Abigail’s blog, AstronautAbby.
