Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Homemade Rocket Enters Space, Overshadows Carl's Accomplishment
Boy was today a nice day. I received a letter from my friend Atsuko, who lives in Japan. She wrote me a short note entirely in Japanese, and I spent my morning at the coffee shop translating it. It was exciting for me to realize how much I have learned over the last year, as I was able to recognize characters and words, and basic sentence structure.
When I was all done, I still had some questions, but I was amazed that I was able to translate. I used dictionaries, but I was still proud of my accomplishment. It is really fulfilling to learn a new language, especially one that takes an entirely different set of characters, and in actuality takes a different though process than English.
I was very full of accomplishment, until I got home and read the news. It happened that a man from Minnesota (and a team of friends) launched a homemade rocket into space from a Nevada desert. Talk about eclipsing my accomplishment! : )
It was the first amateur rocket ever to enter space (which is over 62 miles above the desert floor), traveling at a speed of over 4000 miles per hour (which it reached in less than 10 seconds). It was his third attempt since 1995, and it was entirely amateur, from design to execution. He was understandably thrilled to have accomplished his life’s dream. “I just freaked out,” was his exact words.
Can you imagine? I mean, the action itself serves very little purpose. He has probably lost a lot of time and money pursuing his goal, and at times probably felt as if he’d never accomplish the task. Yet after today’s triumph, he has found something that many of us only dream of finding; fulfillment of his life’s desire.
So congrats to 65 year old Ky Michaelson for doing what so many of us struggle in vain to do. For the rest of us, lets continue to dream big, and work towards our heart’s goals. No matter how wasteful or counter-intuitive it seems, keep translating Japanese letters, painting those pictures, writing those books, and building those rockets.
See ya!
When I was all done, I still had some questions, but I was amazed that I was able to translate. I used dictionaries, but I was still proud of my accomplishment. It is really fulfilling to learn a new language, especially one that takes an entirely different set of characters, and in actuality takes a different though process than English.
I was very full of accomplishment, until I got home and read the news. It happened that a man from Minnesota (and a team of friends) launched a homemade rocket into space from a Nevada desert. Talk about eclipsing my accomplishment! : )
It was the first amateur rocket ever to enter space (which is over 62 miles above the desert floor), traveling at a speed of over 4000 miles per hour (which it reached in less than 10 seconds). It was his third attempt since 1995, and it was entirely amateur, from design to execution. He was understandably thrilled to have accomplished his life’s dream. “I just freaked out,” was his exact words.
Can you imagine? I mean, the action itself serves very little purpose. He has probably lost a lot of time and money pursuing his goal, and at times probably felt as if he’d never accomplish the task. Yet after today’s triumph, he has found something that many of us only dream of finding; fulfillment of his life’s desire.
So congrats to 65 year old Ky Michaelson for doing what so many of us struggle in vain to do. For the rest of us, lets continue to dream big, and work towards our heart’s goals. No matter how wasteful or counter-intuitive it seems, keep translating Japanese letters, painting those pictures, writing those books, and building those rockets.
See ya!
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