The In Trek Memoriam page has been updated again. It's not actors this time, though. Only those who know me well know that, when I was a child I wanted nothing more than to be an astronaut. I read, over and over again, a book from my school library that said by the time I was a middle aged woman we could live on the moon in a huge dome. I was fascinated by that book. I wanted to help achieve those sorts of leaps and bounds. However, when I was in the third grade, on January 28th, we had a monitor in our classroom. Thirty-one of us watched, with the rest of the world, as Challenger fell apart en route to the stars. Our teacher promptly turned off the television and resumed our day. But my day was transfixed by images of that plume of smoke painted against the bluest of blue skies. That night I learned the fate of the seven who tried to reach the glittering beauty beyond our home. Children at school cajoled that NASA really meant "Need Another Seven Astronauts". I didn't find that funny in the least but the fact that it was true in the sense that the seven on board Challenger were really gone, scared me. I decided that maybe I shouldn't try going into space. I changed my profession of choice to a fashion designer, and artist, a lawyer and many more over the years, none of which had the same amount of drive behind them that I gave wanting to be an astronaut. If I had been a little older, perhaps I would have realized the kids I shared a class with didn't really realize what they were saying. Perhaps I would have had the courage to try. Hindsight, as they say, is twenty/twenty. I regret not having followed my dream, despite the risk, which I understand in more depth now than as a mesmerized and frighted eight year old.

In retrospect of the events surrounding the loss of STS-107's crew on board Columbia and the recent anniversaries of both Apollo-1 and Challenger, it seems the sentiment in the lyrics to Enterprise's opening credits are only fitting to the memory of our fallen pioneers and the lives they led.

It's been a long road, getting from there to here.
It's been a long time but my time is finally near.
I will see my dream come alive at last.
I will touch the sky.
And they're not gonna hold me down no more,
No, they're not gonna change my mind.