Ask the Author: Mike Mongo
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Mike Mongo
The Astronaut Instruction Manual came to me in 2006 at age 41. I was a working researcher for Danger Charters eco-tour in Key West, FL, and was really just wrapping up my "adolescience"–working in marine sciences while determining what career direction I wanted to pursue.
One evening while wrapping up and putting away supplies in the office after a day on the water, I began actively contemplating my next move. So I started to think about what I had NOT yet accomplished in my life. Moving down the list–college student, journalist, publisher, computer sciences, military, even graffiti artist (!)–I landed upon "astronaut".
Suddenly it hit me. I was over 40. Seeing as I was not already actually trained to be an astronaut, chances were that I was NEVER going to be an astronaut! This was devastating!
To be fair, there is no career or goal in my life I have wanted more than to be an astronaut and to go to space. My new awareness that this was likely not ever going to happen.
At this point, no doubt many people would be devastated. Instead I instantly put on my thinking cap and recalibrated: "Ok," I thought, "if I can't be an astronaut then what is the next best thing to being as astronaut? Something good enough to sustain my interest for the next half of my life."
Here is where my then-current position at Danger came into play. As a working member of the crew, I got to go out and teach people about the science and story of the Florida Keys Marine Wildlife Preserve. Naturally, there were often young students aboard. Occasionally, a student would become so enamored, so taken with with what we experienced together–be it dolphins being communicative, or sea hares releasing lavender-y ink as a defense mechanism, or the power of jellyfish's nematocyst stinging mechanism, or even (frankly spectacular) weather and tidal patterns–that they would literally transform before our eyes. Everyone on board would witness these miraculous moments as science and wonder suddenly won over their worldviews. It was as if we were all seeing the advent of a lifetime of careers in science. This was so great to be part of AND I WANTED MORE!
So bearing in mind my existential quandary–"OMG I'M NOT GOING TO BE AN ASTRONAUT!"–and my newly-appreciated love of teaching, it dawned on me as an epiphany:
I would be an ASTRONAUT TEACHER.
My thinking was simple. While I may have missed my opportunity to be an astronaut, I realized that by pointing out our space future to young students I would have the thing I never got (ie permission to pursue a vocation and career in astronautics) and insure that today's students realize that tomorrow's jobs are in space.
And I started on writing The Astronaut Instruction Manual that very day.
One evening while wrapping up and putting away supplies in the office after a day on the water, I began actively contemplating my next move. So I started to think about what I had NOT yet accomplished in my life. Moving down the list–college student, journalist, publisher, computer sciences, military, even graffiti artist (!)–I landed upon "astronaut".
Suddenly it hit me. I was over 40. Seeing as I was not already actually trained to be an astronaut, chances were that I was NEVER going to be an astronaut! This was devastating!
To be fair, there is no career or goal in my life I have wanted more than to be an astronaut and to go to space. My new awareness that this was likely not ever going to happen.
At this point, no doubt many people would be devastated. Instead I instantly put on my thinking cap and recalibrated: "Ok," I thought, "if I can't be an astronaut then what is the next best thing to being as astronaut? Something good enough to sustain my interest for the next half of my life."
Here is where my then-current position at Danger came into play. As a working member of the crew, I got to go out and teach people about the science and story of the Florida Keys Marine Wildlife Preserve. Naturally, there were often young students aboard. Occasionally, a student would become so enamored, so taken with with what we experienced together–be it dolphins being communicative, or sea hares releasing lavender-y ink as a defense mechanism, or the power of jellyfish's nematocyst stinging mechanism, or even (frankly spectacular) weather and tidal patterns–that they would literally transform before our eyes. Everyone on board would witness these miraculous moments as science and wonder suddenly won over their worldviews. It was as if we were all seeing the advent of a lifetime of careers in science. This was so great to be part of AND I WANTED MORE!
So bearing in mind my existential quandary–"OMG I'M NOT GOING TO BE AN ASTRONAUT!"–and my newly-appreciated love of teaching, it dawned on me as an epiphany:
I would be an ASTRONAUT TEACHER.
My thinking was simple. While I may have missed my opportunity to be an astronaut, I realized that by pointing out our space future to young students I would have the thing I never got (ie permission to pursue a vocation and career in astronautics) and insure that today's students realize that tomorrow's jobs are in space.
And I started on writing The Astronaut Instruction Manual that very day.
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