I have this very distinct memory
of seeing an image of an astronaut standing on the Moon.
It's burnt in my brain because I went back to it so many times in my childhood.
And I would look at that image, and I know it had a huge impact on me
that humans had walked on the Moon.
My name is Colonel Jeremy Hansen.
I'm an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency,
and I’m a Mission Specialist on NASA's Artemis II mission around the Moon.
My elementary school years, I grew up on a farm outside of London, Ontario.
I spent as much time as I could with my dad on the farm.
I learned the value of hard work, for example.
If I wanted to go to work with Dad, it was going to be a long day
and I was going to have to not complain or I wasn't going to get to go the next day.
I had a treehouse.
I had a vivid imagination, and I changed my treehouse into a spaceship.
I made all these dials and controls.
I had circuit breakers for switches that I found in the barn,
and I was exploring space in my imagination.
The most important thing I did to get to where I wanted to go in life,
which was flying fighter jets and eventually becoming an astronaut,
is I shared those desires with other people, and it turns out,
just like you don't go to the Moon on your own.
If you could, I would have done it a long time ago in my treehouse as a kid.
You have to go as a team.
I think the biggest impediment to achieving my goals was, of course, myself.
And I think that's a common human experience.
There are many times where
this little thing would get in my way, and my immediate interpretation
of that was, well, now that goal’s out the window.
You know, people must have lifted me back up and in...
somewhere in the back of my head, that persistence came through.
And I think that's a common human experience to doubt ourselves.
I've come to this,
I guess, realization that I believe that we all have gifts to contribute,
and the goal is to figure out how to use your energy towards
adding positively to humanity's existence on this planet.
And I love it when humanity sets big goals, like sending humans
to the surface of the Moon with an eye to eventually going to Mars.
Because when we do that, we can bring together
genius from not just even in one country, but around the world.
I've also learned from my indigenous mentors
that they refer to the Moon as Grandmother Moon.
So you've probably heard of Mother Earth and his Grandmother Moon,
because Grandmother Moon is responsible for the water in their community.
Just like the Moon moves the water around the planet, affects the tides.
And I think that's a really beautiful thing for us
as we go back to the Moon to think about all the different cultures
around the world and how they view the Moon differently.
And that's really neat because we all share that same moon in the night sky.