Hey what’s up there? such an unexpected question that stops everyone all of the sudden.
An airplane, maybe, one guy yells out the answer hesitantly.
No way, it’s a rocket. Look at the white smoke it leaves behind. Another one chimes in. He answers with a bit more assertion.
UFO! another creative mind contributes. That basically overpowers everything else and just kills the discussion instantly.
I stood there in silence with no answer. Their guesses were as good as mine. We were young, ignorance and lack of curiosity. That was the price for growing up in a third world country. Five minutes later, we kids turned around and continued our nhay ngua, jumping horse, game. The way the game works is that a loser, select randomly by either black/white palm or rock/paper/scissor, has to bend down for others to jump over . It is a crucial game. Kids can team up on one particular and make him suffer by slapping so hard on the back before jumping. It sometimes bring tears to game. But we all loved it.
I slowly found the real answer to the mysterious question through my growing up, through scientific explanation and through talking with adults openly. Yet, it was not all satisfied until I got to sit on that airplane for the very first time to the America.
Sometimes 20 years later…
Not all engineers and scientists want to work on an outerspace mission. It’s just the novelty of the job while some of us would rather chasing the big bucks at a corporate level. I guess I was one of them - ’til now. My career has made a complete circle to where I started. With some exception, this time I get to sit in with all these big brain, big ideas people here at AMES and JPL in L.A being part of the Mars exploration.
These past couple of months have been very interesting. My workstyle has changed significantly. More reports to write, slower pace, more research to do, less politic to deal with. On a fun day, I can just take my laptop and head to the beach and work instead.
Some 20 years ago…
The correlation between the past and present is the fulfillment of my curiosity. The surprises in finding the unknowns and uncertainties in life. The discovery of the undiscovered. The stride to make the most unfortunate event more fortunate – the positive attitude through our tough time.
-D-
