A Quote by Michael J. Massimino

I saw this movie 'The Right Stuff' when I was in college, and it really rekindled my interest in being an astronaut. I started taking those steps, and then I realized it would be the chance of a lifetime. It would be a dream life: not just a job, but the whole life.
At art college, I started to do music and then painting and drawing - and that would have been my ideal life, to be an artist and be paid for it, to be able to create stuff. I realized it was difficult, but I don't know if I had the application for it.
At the age of six, I declared that I wanted to be an astronaut. My mother thought that was just fine, as it would encourage me to learn science, and besides, there really was no chance I would ever actually become an astronaut.
There are people I'm drawn to that you just can't do a tiny, no-budget movie with. I would like to pursue some of that stuff, to see if I could do a movie with some of those people. And I don't really write scripts myself, but if I read a script I thought was really great, I would totally be up for doing a more traditional movie. It's just that I don't exist in that world. right now.
I wanted to be an actor when I saw the movie 'Die Hard.' I saw Bruce Willis shooting guns and blowing stuff up, and I thought, 'I wanna do that.' It really had nothing to do with acting; I just wanted a job that allowed me to do fun, bigger-than-life stuff.
The movie that we could've finished in 2001 would've sucked. The movie that we could've finished in 2002 would've just been a disaster, even into 2003, it would've been very cobbled together, amateuristic stuff. But as we went along, we really did stumble upon some accidental themes, and with the things you could do with computers, and all that sort of stuff just sort of really accelerated into where the stuff that we could do right here at my house became - you could almost do anything.
There was a point in my life where I either wanted to be an astronaut, an actor, a veterinarian, or a pirate. I just thought being in space would be really cool, but then you have to have 20/20 vision, which I don't have, so there.
Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about those who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it.
For me, the passion of being an astronaut was ignited at an early age. I have this recollection of looking at a picture of the Apollo program - Neil Armstrong standing on the Moon - then looking at the night sky and realizing that, right where I was looking, people stood and looked back at the Earth. Even as a fairly young child, that was not lost on me, and it inspired me to pursue my dream. I didn't know if I would ever become an astronaut, of course, and the odds are not in your favour, but I just kept it in the back of my mind and tried to keep those options open.
I was studying theater management, business stuff. About that time, I realized I really didn't like that, and it threw me into a panic attack a little bit. I was under the assumption that the first job you get out of college is the job you have for the rest of your life.
I'm not sure what my material would have been if I'd have started earlier. I probably would have started with 'Damsels in Distress' kinds of films because that's the kind of comedy I was writing in college. So I didn't really have any life experience to work off of.
I've watched those shows my whole life - being on one is like a dream. It's hard to balance that dream with the fact that this is the Edie I've known my whole life.
I only want to do good projects. I want to make good decisions. If it's just a dumb movie, then no, I'd rather stay in school. But if it's a movie worth telling and that I think I would really benefit from, then I would like to do it. And that's one of the reasons I still live in Colorado. I love being with my family and going to school, and then when I come out to L.A., that is the time to be in the movies. People ask me the questions, I do the promotion work, then I get to go back home and live my life.
I think the astronaut job is the best job in the world. I realized when I was older and started applying for it that it's a pretty cool job.
The most important steps that I followed were studying math and science in school. I was always interested in physics and astronomy and chemistry and I continued to study those subjects through high school and college on into graduate school. That's what prepared me for being an astronaut; it actually gave me the qualifications to be selected to be an astronaut.
It's easy to think that college classes are mainly about preparing you for a job. But remember: this may be the one time in your life when you have a chance to think about the whole of your life, not just your job.
I discovered at 18 that singing and songwriting was my strength. I decided that it was closest to my heart and if I pursued it then there would be no competition. I would just live my life being myself and living my dream.
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