The final frontier

On January 8, 2011 Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the United States House of Representatives was a victim of a shooting near Tucson, which is alleged to have been an assassination attempt on her. Today, she is recovering slowly and is in a rehabilitation facility. Last week, nearly a month after his wife's injury, her husband astronaut Mark Kelly said he knew he was ready to command a space shuttle mission planned for April. But his managers needed reassurance. And so, they tested his ability to focus on the complicated mission while spending time away from his wife for the first time since the shooting. The Navy and NASA veteran for 24 years made no mistakes and passed with flying colors. Later, at a news conference he mentioned how his training allowed him to 'compartmentalize' and set aside personal worries in the face of risky missions....an admirable trait which I think we all need to learn and imbibe in our own lives.



Space....the final frontier....the first line of the opening voice over in 'Star Trek'....one of my favorite TV shows growing up. The TV show was all about Space exploration.....imagining that there was life and other beings on the planets surrounding us. Quite captivating! It never ceases to amaze me how human beings not only conquered the road, the sea and the air but also set their sights onto outer space. We then set about figuring out how to get to space....eventually building rockets that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality and enabling humans to land on the moon. Today, we continue to explore space and learn new facts about the planets and area surrounding the earth.


One thing I know for sure....I won't be visiting space in this lifetime. So instead, what I hope to do is to continue to challenge myself mentally, to learn new things, to conquer my fears, to keep striving to do more, to not let complacency set in and to one day get to that place which for me will be my own personal 'final frontier'.


Signing off wondering if there is life on other planets and this quote by Robert H Goddard who successfully launched the world's first liquid rocket in 1926.


'The dreams of yesterday are the hopes of today and the reality of tomorrow.'