After I got my PhD, I really wanted to gift myself something special, so I said: I’m going to go get my pilot’s license. Then, at 38, somebody sent me an email saying, NASA’s looking for astronauts, you should apply. I had no idea how they even selected astronauts. And when I looked at the qualifications and was, like, Wow, I actually meet most of these qualifications. I had to kind of mentally talk myself into applying — I struggle with impostor syndrome. But I did. And I got down to being a finalist. It was literally a year-long process to get to that yes/no phone call. And that no was kind of crushing. Because, like, uh, I got so close to my childhood dream.

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