Hello and welcome to a certainly autumnal Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 12th.
On this day in 1992, the first African American woman entered space.
"On Sept. 12, 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space when the space shuttle Endeavour carried her and six other astronauts on 126 orbits around the Earth. A mission specialist, Jemison was a co-investigator of two bone cell research experiments, one of 43 scientific investigations that were done on mission STS-47. The shuttle landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 20. Over the course of her only space voyage, Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, and 23 seconds in space." (Source)
My favorite fun fact about Dr. Jemison is that, aside from English, she also speaks Russian, Japanese and Swahili.
(Note: While Dr. Jemison was orbiting Earth, I was entering my senior year at Duluth East High School. I took Spanish 4 and Russian via remote learning before Zoom or Google Hangouts was a thing. I had briefly entertained the idea of majoring in astronomy but subjects like astrophysics sounded insurmountable and math was not my strong suit. Instead, I decided to spend a year studying abroad as an AFS foreign exchange student in Flemish Belgium after high school, where I would go on to get a crash course in Dutch and an introductory course in German and French, for which the Spanish helped a lot.)
A google search informed me of other lady astronaut firsts:
June 16, 1963 - Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. (Source)
June 18, 1983 - Sally Ride was the first white American woman to go to space. (Source)
April 8, 1993 - Dr. Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on the nine-day STS-56 mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. (Source)
July 8, 1994 - Chiaki Mukai, a Japanese physician and JAXA astronaut was the first Japanese woman in space, and the first Japanese citizen to have two spaceflights. (Source)
November 19, 1997 - Kalpana Chawla was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. (Source)
June 16, 2012 - Liu Yang, a Chinese pilot and astronaut who served as a crew member on the space mission Shenzhou 9 became the first Chinese woman in space. (Source)
I was thrilled by this article: A Woman's Place is in Space: Meet Eight Asian American Women Reaching for the Stars.
Delighted by this list of impressive accomplishments by some more recent female astronauts.
And finally, while John Herrington is the first Indigenous American to travel to space, there has yet to be a first Indigenous female astronaut. We should, however, give a shout out to Mary Golda Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, who was the first female Native American engineer. Her work for Lockheed Martin helped to advance the Agena rocket upper stage that supported rendezvous and docking trials during the Gemini program. (Source)
Ross is even featured on the 2019 Native American $1 Coin. (Sally Ride has a stamp.)
And since there appears to have been only three Indigenous space scientists of notable mention to date, let's give a hat tip to Jerry Elliott, of the Osage and Cherokee nations, "who calculated the spacecraft trajectory which enabled the return of the Apollo 13 crew to Earth, for which he and his fellow members of the Mission Control Center received the Presidential Medal of Freedom." (Source)
If you're distance learning or homeschooling, or just want to share some neat fun facts over dinner tonight, here's a wonderful article that includes additional space "first" male counterparts and other impressive contributors: The American Astronauts Who Made History and Set Records
Of course, reading about all of these first lady adventurers and pioneers, makes me think about my own daughters.
We have a coffee table book called Strong is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves. It is a pictorial essay of girls captured in moments of conviction. Determination. Not just faith or hope, but belief.
I admit at times I worry about my girls' self-confidence. I sense that they know they are strong. I see it at home. But out in the world, this confidence wobbles. I have seen them be quieter than their brothers. More demure maybe. Is tame the right word? I am not sure if it's less self-assurance, or something else, or nothing at all.
But right now it is different. Right now, my girls are glowing from the inside out, like their very own stellar objects. They are shooting for the moon and landing in the stars, as the saying goes.
The Oldest is "so far so good" at college, happy to not be the smartest one so she can ask others for help on Calculus. She is celebrating the praise from her CAD teacher and accepting his challenge to create her own final project instead of choosing one from an established list. A year ago, she would have told me ten reasons why she could not do this. This week, she is already brainstorming her new, uncharted adventure.
It's the Second Third Grader I think about the most, though.
The 2020-21 school year started like this: The night before the first day of school, she made sure to shower and get her hair cut. She laid out her clothes, packed her backpack, had her empty lunchbox ready, and told her dad she really needed an alarm clock because she had to wake up at 6:00 a.m.
This is our kid who pretty much dislikes everything about school except gym and snack time. She was not looking forward to 3rd grade and would have gladly accepted staying home forever.
So, what changed?
Something clicked for her this summer. Or rather some things.
1) Reading
The first three kids were all super readers, reading by the time they entered Kindergarten. This was not the case for the Third Grader. Reading was hard and took too long to figure out. She absolutely hates it when she gets things wrong. (And we don't use the word "hate" at our house, so that gives you some idea how much she dislikes it.) And when you're learning to read, you get lots wrong before you get it right.
It all fell into place, though, once she realized that reading could happen outside of books. She discovered texting and SnapChat. Road signs and the Weather Channel. She learned she actually likes stories, especially epic adventures. She even cracked Harry Potter and sat with me reading in bed before going to sleep at night. She may have been imitating me partially, but hey, I’ll take it.
2) Rediscovering a relationship with Mama
The Third Grader and I had a renewed connection this summer. From my side, I felt like I was seeing my child with newly opened eyes. She’d always been there, but did I really see her? I spent so much time and energy on launching her older sister into the world, that the Third Grader just floated by like a satellite in orbit. Capable and strong, yet with a high, high need for affection. I recognized it because I was the same way as a child. When I saw her longing, I knew to stop and hug her. Hold her, cuddle, kiss her and give her all that mama love that had somehow not been showered and distributed liberally until now.
Like a limp flower, she perked. Her stem straightened. She was still bold and capable in executing whatever her imagination willed, but I swear it was different. Or maybe I just finally noticed.
3) Duolingo hit all the right buttons
The expectation to study Czech creates all kinds of conflict at our house. As a linguist, I totally get it. It's hard to want to learn and practice a language none of your friends are speaking. After all the Czech reading and writing that we tried to squeeze out of her, Duolingo was the key to unlock her box of creativity and willingness to learn. She actually enjoys learning Czech now. Clearly, one of her strengths is competition. She enjoys doing well and she enjoys being successful. Winning is delightful. And Duo the Owl language mascot is pretty cute, too.
4) Her sister went to college
The Oldest leaving is both sad and empowering as the Third Grader now has space to unfold her wings. Her dresser is in her own room now instead of in the boys’ room. She inherited her sister’s desk. She has an art table. Her LEGOS are organized. The floor in her room is empty and clean.
5) Getting a school sneak peak
Meeting her teachers and seeing her classroom was the last piece to complete the puzzle of our daughter. She was ready for 3rd grade.
So when I came upstairs on the first day of school, at a groggy 6:15 a.m., she was already gliding down the hallway. Dressed, hair brushed. A nice outfit with a matching blue headband. She opened the door to her brothers’ room, calling them to wake up so they wouldn’t miss the bus. She bustled importantly around her room then to the kitchen organizing the snacks and lunch items she would pack: cheese stick, plums, carrots, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a Take 5 mini candy bar, and three gummy bears for each kid from dad. While she prepared herself, she sang, “Brothers, we go to school, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo” to the tune of Baby Shark. At 6:30, she returned to their room, coaxing them again to get up. I wish I had written down what she said at the moment because – whatever it was – it was brilliant and funny and so telling of her personality in this moment.
When I went to the boys’ room, our Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence said, “This day is terrible. We’re going to school.” (Or similar. Again, I wish I’d written it down.)
By this time the new Kindergartner was up and moving. He came upstairs slow with sleep, but once he came out of his room dressed in a long sleeve butterfly shirt (the one from a butterfly garden in Iowa that all the kids have worn), he, too, embraced the spirit and excitement the Third Grader emanated.
The bus was late which was okay. We appreciated not having to race out, coats and backpacks flying like kite streamers behind the kids’ backs. They boarded the bus. And that was that. Another school year officially commenced. Hubby and I celebrated by riding our bikes together to town until we parted ways – he to the office, and me back home to begin a new year myself.
Yes, I believe that strong is the new pretty. If we can capture more of these moments of inner confidence and bring them forth for the world, perhaps one day it will be our daughters landing on the moon.
Which might happen in 2024. (Source)
On This Day
Remembering You
Kim
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| Dr. Mae C. Jemison — physician, scientist, teacher and the first black woman astronaut. |
Really enjoyed this read and how you made use of the theme of starry space as a metaphor /analogy of expansion and new horizons. Loved the flow of the unfolding history of women in space. Inspiring. So good to hear about the third-grader's blossoming. I wonder what insight nuggets she has stored away related to her big sister's plunge out of the cozy H nest. I feel like air-hugging each of them. In these times, even going to school is an act of courage.
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