My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.

I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into.

It's well known that many girls have a tendency to dumb down when they're in middle school.

You know, I go around the country a lot.

But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.

The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter.

The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don't be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.