A Night for Inspiration - Kelly Schwark

Read Time:2 Minute, 45 Second

A quiet night at home turned into a night to be inspired.
Former Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly above, and his wife,
former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

I’ve joked several times recently that I’m overwhelmed and under-caffeinated. With all honesty though, that is a very true statement these days. The past few weeks have felt like I’ve been climbing uphill and making little progress, if any, and last night I was completely exhausted. My plan was to have a quiet night, praying that I could make it until my daughter’s bedtime and then catch up on work for my classes.

Until… I read former Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly’s tweet that he was going to be at the Barnes and Noble in Yonkers signing his new children’s book Moustronaut Goes to Mars. My daughter not only wants to be an astronaut for Halloween, but it is on the short list of things to be when she grows up. I try and encourage her to keep dreaming big by taking her to things like witnessing Enterprise being flown into New York, or getting up close and personal at Intrepid Museum’s SpaceFest for the past two years. She watches (when the government isn’t shut down) live spacewalks with astronauts that she can name, and waves at Cassini. She can tell you about the International Space Station and Curiosity on Mars. She loves it. I’m her mom, and could not pass up this opportunity for her to meet Commander Kelly. After five minutes of reading his tweet, we were in the car on our way down to the store. It would’ve been sooner, but my determined six year old wanted to wear her Halloween costume and put her beloved NASA and military pins on it.

Do you ever have the weight of the never complete “to do list” pulling at you? The entire time beforehand, my list kept tugging at me, and that uphill climb seemed even higher up then when I first started. But then, I watched my daughter as she beamed with excitement, spouting off facts and chattering away about space exploration as we awaited Commander Kelly’s arrival. I knew that this memory would stay with her.

When he arrived, she listened intently, and couldn’t wait to meet him. As her mom, I sat there and was so glad that she was creating that memory. When he finished reading his newest book, we lined up to have him sign one to bring home.

It was then that I saw the honorable Gabby Giffords standing in the back. You already know that I’m a bit of spacegeek, so meeting Commander Kelly was exciting for me… but seeing former Congresswoman Giffords there gave me goosebumps. Her story is remarkable and her perseverance is one that brings a message of inspiration, faith and hope to anyone. Both of them, in fact, are an inspiration. Suddenly, the uphill climb didn’t seem as daunting. Is it still a steep climb that reaches farther than I can see at the moment? Absolutely, but meeting them both last night was just the reminder that I needed to just take one step at a time. So that’s what I’m doing.