One more July post...

I can't believe it's almost August... I can't believe we are over half way through 2008 for that matter! I've had a lot of fun and I've traveled a lot too. I've been to St. Louis three times: two weddings and a funeral. I also went to Ukraine for 10 days (more on that later), Denver, and Navasota.

I mean it's crazy!

But besides all the fun I've been having, this year completely stands out for me.

Back in March, I was asked to be on the JSC 20 Year Vision Team. That's how it all started... A team of 30 NextGen / Gen Y folks (whatever you want to call us) were asked to come up with a vision for JSC. Before we could do that, we needed some lessons on strategic planning because most of us had never thought beyond our daily task list. This task would require us to put ourselves in the shoes of the JSC Center Directors and Program Managers. We needed to imagine that it is 20 years in the future and we are the Center Directors and Program Managers... It was fun... and daunting.

It took us almost half a day to be able to say "When I am the Center Director, I will...." Once we made that leap, we were able to move forward. Over the next month and a half, we worked on the Vision and a presentation to go along with it. You can find it here (the third link). We presented our Vision to Mike Coats (JSC Center Director), his senior staff, the Joint Leadership Team, the Lockheed Martin Leadership Association, REACH (the Boeing New Hire Club), our managers, all the interns / co-ops... the list goes on! It's amazing how many speeches I've given this year. So many cool things have come out of working on this team...

• I've gotten to talk to people I never dreamed I'd be talking to.
• I've made some very deep, meaningful friendships.
• I've learned new skills: strategic planning, big picture thinking, teamwork, leadership
• I got so excited about pulling other new hires into the action that I joined REACH's core team.
• I cooked up a summer intern mentoring program for Boeing.
• I helped with the International Space Settlement Design Competition.
• I've been asked to help facilitate cross-generational discussions at Boeing in Houston.
• I was inspired to apply for International Space University and became one of Boeing's runners up. (I hope to be selected in 2009)
• I learned about new tools like Twitter.
• I started to blog again.
• I've been asked to keep participating in strategic planning at JSC.
• I bought a BlackBerry. :)

.... I like lists a lot, by the way....

I really attribute most of my personal development this year to that two-day 20 Year Vision Workshop back in March. It gave me a boost of energy I have not had in a long time! The first day, I was so inspired to have a solid 8 hours to think about the future. That night, I was talking everybody's ears off with all my excitement! The next day, I went back for part 2 of the workshop. I distinctly remember the feeling of, "Today, I'm going to change the world... or at least make a difference." I want that feeling every day! I want to be in a place where I really feel like I'm contributing. That's why I'm so involved in REACH and the JSC Strategic Planning activities.

Honestly, I'm not just trying to compile a list of good deeds and accolades... this really all stems from a desire to be involved in other people's lives - for their benefit. It's so rewarding to do things for other people... and to do things that will impact the future.

I also distinctly remember the feeling of "Wow, I didn't know this world existed!" My dear friend, Chris, said "Welcome!" I mean it's just amazing what you find when you get out of your bubble. We only have one life to live. So far 2008 has really been an outstanding year, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!

How Did I Get Here?

Since my blog is entitled Houston Chronicles, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about how I came to Houston. It may surprise you to know that I have not lived here that long. I was born in St. Louis, MO and lived there for 18 years. St. Louis is a great city! I'll have to blog about it some time... I lived in several different areas of St. Louis: Florissant, St. Charles, and Chesterfield. I never imagined that I would live anywhere else! Pretty much my whole family is in St. Louis - mom, dad, little sister, big sister and her family, big brother and his family and my other big brother is across the river in Illinois. My Great Aunt Ruth lives in St. Louis, so did my grandma for the last several years until she passed away.

It all started in 10th grade. I learned about Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama one day when I was poking around the internet - don't remember how exactly I came across it. Regardless, I decided that I really wanted to go to Space Camp during the summer after sophomore year of high school - it was the year 2000. The high school camp called "Advanced Space Academy" lasted for 6 days. I signed up for the Mission Specialist track which entailed flying around the Payload Bay of the Orbiter during simulations ("sims") - how cool is that? I soaked up the experience like a sponge. I learned every fact they threw at us in 6 days. We had 3 short sims and one long sim. For the long sim, I was in Mission Control because I ended up liking that job more than being an astronaut - I know, I'm weird! In Mission Control, the counselors do silly things to keep you entertained. They'd sit in the back and make Star Wars quotes pop up on our consoles! It was very entertaining. After Space Camp, I was hooked. I came back and told my big brother that I liked my math and science classes, and I loved Space Camp - but what kind of job could I do that entailed all 3? He said I could be an "Aerospace Engineer."

I wish I had a picture of that moment because it turned out to be a defining one. From that point on, I continued to take all the math and science classes available to me. I took AP Bio, Chem, Physics, and Calculus. When senior year rolled around, I used US News & World Report's college rankings to discover that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL was the #1 Aerospace Engineering school (for colleges without a PhD program). St. Louis University was #2 at the time. Therefore, I applied to both schools. After being accepted to both and calculating that it would cost the same to go to either school (factoring in scholarships), I decided to head down to Florida for 4 years.

Naturally, I majored in AE, thanks to my brother's advice. I loved my classes, professors and experiences at school. I was a member of, and later President of, the AE Honor Society - Sigma Gamma Tau. I also went back to Space Camp as a Counselor during the summer of 2004.

The next summer, I accepted an internship with Boeing in Houston. I guess it should have occurred to me that if I wanted to be in the human spaceflight business, there was a very good chance I would end up in Houston. But I didn't realize that until 2006 when I graduated and took a job with Boeing in Houston - same team as my internship. I never thought of Houston as the place where human space flight comes together. I knew that Mission Control and the Astronauts were in Houston, but I didn't realize that the engineering, analysis, and hardware owners are in Houston too! I guess I thought that it was all in Florida. After I came here in 2005 for my first internship, my eyes were opened as I saw the Johnson Space Center from the inside for the first time.

There are numerous aerospace companies nestled in the Clear Lake area - all working on NASA contracts. Boeing, Lockheed, Oceaneering, Jacobs, USA, Barrios, Wylie, Hamilton-Sundstrand, MEI, and others. It takes thousands of employees to keep the Space Shuttle and International Space Station flying. Now we have Constellation in the mix! It's probably common knowledge to some, but back in high school when I decided to go into aerospace engineering, Houston really wasn't on my radar screen. I just wasn't aware of how Houston fit into the picture. Now that I'm here, I see that JSC is really the epicenter of Human Space Flight.

So... now I've been here for 2 years. Time flies! In the last year, my horizons have really been expanding. I've been participating on a team working on JSC's 20 Year Vision (more on that later) and I've been helping to lead Boeing's new hire club: REACH.

It's funny where life takes you!

Another week begins....

The Dark Knight was about what I expected. It was violent, dark, fast-paced, action-packed, and filled with stunning special effects. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine were excellent as usual. Heath Ledger's performance was phenomenal. I knew it was going to be good, and he did not disappoint! He was totally unpredictable and off the wall. Since I don't know the comics, this was my first exposure to Two-Face. It's an interesting question: is a guy who decides whether to do good or evil really evil if he leaves his decisions to "chance?" He's obviously one of the "bad" guys, but you feel a little sorry for him which is intentional, I'm sure.

The Space Settlement Design Competition was really fun! Saturday, I helped teach the Structures session. We had an architect named Laurie on the presentation team - she did most of the technical info. I presented the teamwork aspect at the beginning. Each of the four departments (structures, human engineering, operations, automation) had a separate technical session to learn what they needed to know to perform their tasks. After all the technical sessions the teams assembled back into the 4 companies and began to work on their proposals. (On Sunday, after church, I came back to help as a Red Team member. Basically, we were giving the kids a chance to have some pre-judging feedback from the Technical Experts. Each team had about 2 hours with 2-8 Red Team members. I was there until 9:30 pm! The projects have come a long way in 2 days. I am very impressed with what they have done. The presentations and judging will be today. Winners will be announced from 4 to 5pm in the Blastoff Theater at Space Center Houston. I wish I could go...

Saturday evening I saw "Rob Roy" for the first time. That was a fantastic movie! I love anything about Scotland, first of all. It's just a quirky obsession I have. I love the culture, the music, and the passion of the people as evidenced by their history. The movie told the story of a Scottish clansman who became entangled with the English lords when he borrowed money from them. It is a tale of love, revenge, honor, and courage. I highly recommend it for those who haven't seen it. If nothing else, the landscape and the music alone are worth seeing/hearing!

So the weekend was very busy, and yes... I am tired as I expected. There's a lot going on this week. I'm a little overwhelmed by my "to-do" list right now - especially since my parents will be visiting next week!

Weekend plans

I love weekends... but why are they so short? I don't get time during the week to have as much fun as I'd like, so I try to cram it all in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday! However, that usually leaves me pretty depressed on Sunday evenings because I know five long, hard days lie ahead of me before the fun ones come around again. Weekends leave me exhausted too. C'est la vie... until I think of a better plan, I'm going to keep packing my weekends full of fun... if I plan to sit around at home all weekend and "relax" I know I won't look forward to my weekends.

Anyway, this weekend will be fun! Tonight I'm leaving work at 4:30 to go to dinner at Red Robin and the BATMAN at the IMAX!!! I'm so excited! I've heard such good things about that movie (besides that it's dark and violent). I'll have to do an addendum to this post later and take a stab at being a film critic!

Saturday and Sunday I'll be helping out with the International Finals of the Space Settlement Design Competition, here in Houston, TX! http://spaceset.org/

Anita Gale has been running these programs for a LONG time.... There really isn't a more realistic industry experience for high schoolers out there... at least according to Anita. I've been helping Anita this week in preparation for the Finals. We've been making copies of the info for the students and pulling everything together. Anita still hasn't written the RFP (request for proposal)... she plans to do that tomorrow. It seems like there is a crazy amount of prep work that goes into these competitions. I didn't realize that last year - I only helped out for a few hours as a Technical Expert for the kids working in the Structures group. It was really fun so I decided to play a bigger support role this year. I'll be a Tech Expert again but I will also help with the pre-judging on Sunday. Pretty excited!

So that's the forecast...we'll see how everything turns out!