I've decided that NASA can kiss my ass.
My boss is currently having a "stern conversation" with me about how my lack of confidence at work is beginning to have "catastrophic effects" on the satellite I'm currently working on.
I don't really care.
I put four years in at the University of California Berkely and then a PhD in aerospace engineering at MIT to work at NASA to become an astronaut. And what have I to show for it? A shitty satellite that will bring more cat videos to old bitties around the world.
Fantastic.
I nod at the right times and murmur an unconvincing apology to my boss before I slink out of the room. I heave a sigh, and head back to my cramped office on the other side of the building. Maybe I would have the confidence to stand up to the douche bag engineers on my team if I cared in the slightest about the project, but it gets increasingly hard to do so these days when I feel like my dream is slipping more quickly from my fingers each day.
I plop down in my chair, trying not to feel too defeated, but fail.
I look over at the framed portrait of Valentina Tereshkova, the first female astronaut, hanging on the opposite wall. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, is positioned carefully next to her. A reality that once seemed tangible and worth working towards now seems indeterminably out of reach.
NASA is kind of underwater right now.
And by "kind of," I mean they're practically insolvent. We continue on by the grace of the taxpayers and the budget that Congress allows us. Which dwindles ever closer to zero each year.
I spin in my chair listlessly, thinking. Leaning forward, I pull up the recruitment email from Boeing that I got a few weeks ago. The pay is double and the risk of Boeing going belly-up is closer to zero than Tom Hiddleston selling feet pictures on OnlyFans.
Leaving NASA feels tantamount to giving up on my dreams. What is the point of anything I've worked for if I up and leave for a couple extra dollars?
I don't have the answer to that, but I do know that if I don't change something about my life, I risk letting my soul wither alongside my dreams.
YOU ARE READING
Project Snap Decision
RomantikWhen Joe Burreaux put down his football helmet, he never thought he'd pick up another again. However, when NASA DMs him asking him to join Project Snap Decision, he couldn't resist fulfilling another dream of his. What he didn't expect, was Camden...
