Transcriber: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: David DeRuwe
At the age of three years old,
I decided to become an astronaut and go to Mars.
At 18, I am now certified for research missions in suborbital space.
"How is that possible?" you might ask.
Well, I changed the paradigm.
A simple cartoon show that I watched when I was three years old
sparked an idea that I never lost track of,
and ever since that moment,
I have dedicated my life to training, learning, teaching,
and I am taking all the necessary steps required
in order to make this dream a reality.
At 12 years old, I was selected for a NASA MER 10 panel,
and this was to discuss future missions to Mars in the 2030s.
The other panelists, as you see, were PhDs and an astronaut
and my little 12-year-old self.
But it was great for them to want to hear from me -
the journey I had been on, my dream to go to Mars,
and how I was planning on doing that.
Over the course of the next years,
I started working on my advanced scuba certification.
This was to begin feeling those sensations of being in an environment without oxygen,
similar to the vacuum of space.
I was also the youngest to be accepted and attend Advanced PoSSUM Academy.
Now, PoSSUM stands for Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere.
Project PoSSUM is an astronautical research and education program,
studying our world's upper atmosphere
and its role in our changing global climate.
It is the first and only crewed suborbital research program.
Now, not even a year ago,
I finished my most current and exciting achievement:
my applied astronomic certification.
Now, this basically means that I am now allowed
to go on a research mission in suborbital space.
So I'm now allowed to go past that line
and up into space.
So, to achieve this certification, I had to do multiple trainings.
Some of that includes microgravity training.
So this is a video of actually my first microgravity flight.
This is the very first moment that I experienced microgravity.
We were doing research,
so this was just like our quick fun before we had to actually get serious.
But we were studying how the man in that final frontier spacesuit
could actually do movements while floating around.
So we were seeing, you know:
Could he move a joystick? Could he buckle his seat belt?
All those simple things we had to study.
Other trainings include water survival training.
So this was again very first day, very first moment in the water.
We were blindfolded and buckled into this contraption,
with a pretend window,
and we had to learn how to escape.
And then we had to do all this over again,
in big, heavy spacesuits and escaping from a capsule.
I also, along with these trainings, did decompression training,
G-force training,
classes in space atmosphere, space physiology,
and different research studies.
And all of these amazing experiences
were done with the citizen science organization Project PoSSUM.
Now my next steps are continuing my education,
going and studying astrobiology.
I will also continue working with Project PoSSUM.
I will continue working towards my pilot certificate
with an instrumentation rating.
And I'm also looking forward to doing more skydiving training.
So this is my first skydive,
which was a very adrenaline-filled moment.
And the reason why we actually do skydiving
is because that free-fall aspect is another one of those sensations,
one of the few sensations that we can have here on Earth
to actually prepare for the feeling that you may experience in space.
So this, this was very interesting.
I couldn't breathe, if you can't tell.
It was very difficult, all that air being shoved into your face.
But it's definitely a whirlwind,
and picturing this moment, you know,
possibly taking off in a rocket and having those same feelings
is absolutely incredible.
As you can see, throughout all of these different experiences,
I have been trying to change this paradigm.
A paradigm is a typical pattern, an example of something -
almost a model, if you will.
And for instance, the paradigm for becoming an astronaut
is getting a bachelor's,
working in a particular career for several years,
applying to the astronaut selection process,
completing basic astronaut training ...
Then you have to wait and be assigned a mission,
and then you have to complete training just for that mission,
and then you can finally go to space.
And so, this idea, you know, why is it like that,
that we have to take all this time and all this effort
where you're kind of at that point
where at this point you're very ... not old,
but you're a bit older at this point.
But why is it like that?
Why is it that our youngest American astronaut is 32 years old,
and our youngest astronaut ever is 25?
If a kid has an interest in a career,
they can begin studying it and how to pursue it.
If you think about it, when you begin studying a topic,
you go to pursue your bachelor's, on to your master's,
and eventually, on to your PhD.
A person will have studied that topic for eight to ten years.
If a kid gets interested in a career topic at seven,
studies and works hard towards it,
what's to say that ten years later, at 17, they can't have achieved it?
In my journey, I have learned many lessons,
and I would like to share three of them with you today.
The first one is putting in the hard work.
Each one of us has this passion and drive for something.
Finding that passion is only the first step
because, more importantly, you have to be willing to put in the hard work.
Dreams are very special in the sense that they can't be bought.
They can't be given to you, and you have to want it.
A 16-year-old recently got a phone call from NASA
offering him a paid internship
and a guaranteed job in the next couple of years.
His interest was rocketry, and ever since he was little,
he worked to become the president of his rocketry club,
built as many rockets as he could from scratch,
and he put in the hard work.
The hard work that you put in to follow your dream will not go unnoticed
and can bring you closer to following your dream
than you might have thought.
So what about you?
When can you start putting in the hard work?
And how can you start putting in the hard work now
to, one day, achieve your dreams?
Two is sacrifice.
As part of my training,
I have learned that with the hard work comes some sacrifice.
Many of the opportunities and trainings that I have done along the way
have been during the school week, during different fun activities.
Things such as video games or attending an event
may sound a lot more appealing,
and with any job,
the play is always going to sound more interesting than the work.
But when talking about our dreams, it's always important to stick with it,
and it's also important in finding that right balance
of when to buckle down, put in the hard work,
and when to have that time to relax and enjoy your free time.
This balance in essential in following after your dream,
and there will be sacrifices along the way.
The sacrifices that I have done have brought my dream closer to me,
and without them, who knows?
My dream could have faded away.
So are you willing to put in those sacrifices
to eventually obtain your dreams and your goals?
Three is never give up.
I wonder sometimes what was going through my little brain when I was three
when I was thinking that becoming an astronaut
was exactly what I was going to do.
Choosing the career option of becoming an astronaut
and the goal of going to Mars
was the absolutely craziest career option I could have ever picked.
However, I was not knocked down by this; I was not discouraged.
Because of the hard work I'd put in,
the support from family and everyone around me
and never giving up,
I am where I am today.
So it is important
because now the mission to Mars is becoming more and more of a reality.
So with your dream, no matter how crazy it might sound in the moment
or how far-fetched it might be,
if you continue and never give up on it,
it's possible that it could become a reality.
And this idea of changing the paradigm
is to make jobs that appear impossible within our reach,
if we want them bad enough.
Bala Ambati is an American ophthalmologist, educator and researcher.
He was claimed as the youngest doctor when he was only 17 years old.
Katrina Mumaw is claimed as the youngest person
to pilot a Russian Mig-29 fighter jet when she was 11 years old.
Yeah, pretty intense.
She was also the youngest to break the sound barrier.
Finally Jamie Edwards, at 13, became the youngest fusioneer,
meaning he built an entire nuclear fusion reactor
from scratch.
This generation is definitely changing the world,
and this generation is breaking out of that paradigm
that we find all of ourselves following.
As we encourage our kids to continue breaking these paradigms,
these norms that we have,
that is how we can make a difference in the world.
Never stop [dreaming].
Never give up on your dreams.
And never let anyone take your dreams away from you.
Because this is a time of change,
a time to explore,
a time to evolve.
Change the paradigm,
change the future for the next generations.
I am Alyssa Carson, call sign “Blueberry,"
and we are the Mars generation.
Thank you.
(Applause) (Cheers)