{"id":315,"date":"2013-02-05T15:37:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=315"},"modified":"2013-02-05T15:37:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:37:18","slug":"to-infinity-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"To infinity and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"from<\/a>

from nasa.gov<\/p><\/div>\n

When I moved away from my college town, I took one afternoon to go around to visit my professors and to tell them how much their teaching meant to me.\u00a0 I personally went to each one and thanked them for their dedication to shaping my future.\u00a0 I wasn’t just a gesture for me.\u00a0 The Doctors Lockwood, Johanssen, Lyng, and Landwehr are people that I truly admired, and still do, even though only one is still with us.\u00a0 They taught me much about chemistry, mathematics, and literature\/Latin, but more so about life.\u00a0 Along with my family, they truly played a role in the person I am today.<\/p>\n

I have reached that age where loss of\u00a0that generation of individuals is becoming unavoidable.\u00a0 I have been blessed to know all of my grandparents as an adult (along with many great-grandparents and even a great-great grandmother into my teen years).\u00a0 Sadly, only one of my grandmothers is still journeying with me today.<\/p>\n

When I hear of another loss of someone I admire (even though I’ve never met them), I really give pause to think about the influence that person had on my life.\u00a0 One such loss occurred on August 25, 2012 with the death of Astronaut Neil Armstrong.\u00a0 I was “present” at his and Astronauts Collins and Aldrins historic moon landing.\u00a0 In actuality, I was in utero<\/em>, but hearing all the stories passed through the years,\u00a0I feel as if I\u00a0had been\u00a0sitting there riveted to Aldrin’s reading of the Bible while\u00a0waiting breathless to see Armstrong take those historic steps.<\/p>\n

What occurred on that\u00a020th of July in 1969 allowed for a\u00a0greater push in science\u00a0and mathematics that allowed a little girl born at Bethesda Naval Hospital in November that year to grow up and believe that she\u00a0too\u00a0could\u00a0be a part of that world.\u00a0\u00a0Although my ultimate footsteps followed that of Christa McAuliffe in the world of teaching, the entire Apollo program was a catalyst for my future.\u00a0 Because of that achievement, a whole new world was open to those of us who\u00a0came after them.<\/p>\n

Even though my faith differs from that of Mr. Armstrong, I do still admire his accomplishments and achievements.\u00a0Similarly, I don’t really care about whether his\u00a0famous quote was\u00a0rehearsed or spontaneous.\u00a0What\u00a0impresses me is the way he lived his life. \u00a0By all accounts I have read, his humility and humble nature as a reluctant hero dotted his illustrious career.\u00a0 He simply did his job without wanting the accolades while\u00a0giving back to the community as often as he was able.\u00a0 In a world full of instant celebrity, those character traits are rare to find these days.<\/p>\n

I loved the classy statement given by his family following his death.\u00a0\u00a0The words were\u00a0humble and embodied what we as a nation will always remember about him. Armstrong’s family said, “For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.” \u2014\u00a0 (Central Press\/Getty Images) .<\/p>\n

So, Mr. Armstrong, thanks for going to the moon and helping me reach for the stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I moved away from my college town, I took one afternoon to go around to visit my professors and to tell them how much their teaching meant to me.\u00a0 I personally went to each one and thanked them for their dedication to shaping my future.\u00a0 I wasn’t just a gesture for me.\u00a0 The Doctors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[18,40,43,379,439,549,620,624],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}