Alyssa Carson is a 13-year-old Louisiana girl with the huge dream of being the 1st person to land on Mars. Her tale is incredibly inspirational because she is (obviously) a girl who has dedicated her young life to her dogged pursuit of becoming an astronaut. Alyssa has dedicated herself to studying science on her path to NASA and has also focused on learning languages so that she can communicate with scientists in other countries. She currently speaks English, Spanish, Chinese, French, and a little bit of Turkish, which she picked up at Space Camp Turkey.
When I read Alyssa’s bio on her own website, I could just feel her excitement for space travel. She excitedly recounts all of the space camps that she has attended in the United States and abroad, starting at the age of 3. There is so much technical information that it is initially hard to keep straight, but her passion is highlighted with neon letters. It is nearly impossible to not become excited for her.
When you have a passion, you obviously must dedicate a lot of time and energy to become skilled in that area and follow your dream. But, Alyssa’s dream also requires one thing more: courage.
First, it takes courage to be the only American attending space camps in other countries as a preteen. Secondly, it also takes a tremendous amount of courage to even think about traveling into space (hello, it’s space), and then even another level of bravery to consider actually landing on another planet. If (or rather, when) she realizes her dream, she will be risking her life. We also recognize how amazing her parents are because she could not attend all of these space camps without their help. They are willing to support her dreams even knowing that huge risks are involved.
My ultimate takeaway from Alyssa’s story is that every person should be pursuing their dreams. Will Alyssa actually land on Mars? Who knows how science will change in her lifetime. Maybe she will be the person that makes it possible to land on Mars. Her relentless dedication shows us that any time spent pursuing a dream cannot be wasted; it will only enhance your life. Hard work and dedication do pay off. And, when you invest in yourself, it pays off later in life.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and work on my dreams.
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdPCI7tjG74″ width=”480″ height=”300″][su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-Veei0jQM” width=”540″ height=”320″][su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1PFLuTrgM” height=”480″][/su_youtube]