In the 1960’s, a little girl living on the south side of Chicago was so intrigued by outer space that some nights she would gaze up at the sky and the stars and imagine herself going there one day. That little girl went on to become a medical doctor, a volunteer in the Peace Corps, an educator, and an entrepreneur. Even with all those accomplishments, she never lost her fascination with those twinkling lights in the night sky and her desire to soar among them. So, on a whim, she called the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and requested an application. She was determined to go into space and took the necessary steps to get there. The funny thing is she wasn’t thinking about making history, she just wanted to go. “Never be limited by other people’s limited imagination,” she said, “if you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won’t exist because you’ll have already shut it out…you can hear other people’s wisdom, but you’ve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself.”[1] And on September 12, 1992, Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, accomplished her childhood dream.
A true innovator and trailblazer, Dr. Jemison pushed limits and boundaries. She refused to live life inside a box and ended up orbiting amongst the stars. So, “shoot for the moon because even if you miss you too can land among the stars.”
[1] Redd, Nola T. “Mae Jemison: Astronaut Biography.” Space.com. August 17, 2012. Accessed July 10, 2018. https://www.space.com/17169-mae-jemison-biography.html
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