WEBVTT

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I'm Expedition 9 flight engineer and NASA science officer Mike Fincke aboard the International Space Station.

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Intro music.

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When I was 3 years old, I remember watching the first people land on the Moon, and I watched the whole Apollo program,

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from then on, on the TV all the time and I was only, you know, really young.

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And that really made a big impression on me and I knew that I wanted to become an astronaut. I was a little boy and since then,

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I've had my dreams come true. I'm a very lucky guy.

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To achieve my goal, I knew that it wasn't gonna be easy, but in this country, everything is possible. And I was so, so lucky.

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My scholarship, of course, was through the Air Force, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, ROTC,

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and they paid for my undergraduate and allowed me to get some degrees that were helpful, that, so during my Air Force Career,

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I could get the kind of experience and practice and skills that were necessary to become an astronaut.

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The coolest thing about my job is flying in space, getting a chance to see our beautiful planet from up above, getting to perform spacewalks, but also

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getting to meet a lot of people along the way and being part of a really big team that's working together to make things on the planet Earth a lot better.

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I was very blessed and very lucky to have a chance to see our planet from 250 miles above. Every time I flew past the window,

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I would just look down and just, just smile -- both on the inside and on the outside, because it was, is such a beautiful view.

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And it changed me, honestly it did. It changed me, I was able to see, get a perspective that the Space Station

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and our Space Program is about what human beings can do when they work together.

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I was on the Space Station for six months and there were only two of us onboard. We didn't have any visitors,

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and it felt a little bit isolated, but only a little bit.

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And part of the reason was, is, we had telephone capability, and I was able to talk to my family and keep in good touch.

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And we had some e-mail capability too, so I didn't feel -- I didn't feel that I was too isolated from the planet.

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Being an astronaut, for me, has been extremely rewarding, and I think there's probably a few people out there that might want to become an astronaut,

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and if I had to give them any advice, it would be, first of all to -- this is good advice for just about anything, including being an astronaut

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but first of all is to be a good person.

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That's very important in life, all around. Be the nicest, best person that you can be. That just makes things better for everybody.

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But also to be really good at what you do. So, whether you're students, you need to study hard, or whether you're a scientist or engineer,

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you need to be the best scientist or engineer that you can be. And finally, I'd suggest never to give up.

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Life throws us all kinds of curveballs, and I've had a few in my life, but persistence really pays off. And even though I had a few curveballs, like I said,

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I've been able to achieve my dreams and I wish everybody out there to be able to achieve their dreams too. And in this country, it's possible.

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Ending music.

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