On Monday, Jan. 27, NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir live-streamed a group of students at her alma mater University of San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in order to answer some of their questions about science, space, and even her personal life.
Interestingly, the live forum of Meir between the students also became an inspiring talk of Meir advising the youth not to give up their dreams, especially when they're still young.
Jessica Meir's Message to Youth
Almost 150 students from both Fulton Middle School and Memorial Preparatory for Scholars and Athletes in San Diego were invited to talk with Dr. Meir before she aboard the International Space Station.
Students were able to ask questions about Meir's experiences in space and how long did it take her to reach her ultimate dream of becoming an astronaut.
This is the time when Meir revealed that she failed a few times while entering her profession today. She said, as quoted by one of the student guests, was that "... she wasn't accepted the first few times, but then she finally was after a while, so that's just her way of saying don't give up until you get what you want."
Meir also explained that having a dream should also be done with hard work and identifying what your passion really is.
"I think the most important thing to do is to make sure that you identify your passion and do what it is that you really care about. Once you've done that, you do have to work very hard to make those dreams come true," said Meir.
After the said event, Meir was able to thank all the students and organizers that made the event possible even if she was not physically around.
"It really means so much for me to be able to share my life up here with all of you," said her.
Who is Jessica Meir?
Dr. Jessica Meir has been part of NASA after she received her Doctorate in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
She was born and raised in the most northeastern city of Caribou, Maine, in the US. Meir became the very first Swedish woman that traveled in space and had become part of history after she and her colleague NASA Astronaut Christina Koch completed the very first all-female spacewalk in the history of space.
According to BBC, she and Koch spent seven hours outside the International Space Station to replace a failed power controller on the station's P6 truss structure.
This mission was also one of Meir's personal achievement as she then became the 15th woman to ever walk in space.
United States President Donald Trump even relied on a congratulatory message for the female astronauts that described them as "very brave and brilliant women."
As of now, Meir is still traveling on space for over 17,000 miles per hour, but a lot of the youth are already inspired to be just like her.
