As an astronaut, oddly yet of course, my perfect day would be the day I came home from being in space for an extended period of time. I would be with my husband parents and brother at my parent's home where I grew up and spent most of my 25 years of life. Also the place where my husband and I got married. It would be a simple day, a day I consider normal by any standard compared to the way I live presently. I would have drunken noodles for dinner and play Cosmic Encounter with my family. Watch a Studio Ghibli movie and end the day with a tall bubble bath and a good book. A perfect conclusion to any day. I could go for this day right now! I want drunken noodles, Studio Ghibli, games and a bath!
But, in not being an astronaut and imagining being one, I think most of us would consider a normal day to be a perfect day. Ironically, the perfect day would be the day I WASN'T an astronaut. In imagining being an astronaut, I'll move to the wonders it could bring. I'm inclined to talk about the perfect day being in space.Waking up to the bright Earth as my sun, the vast infinite space spreading out before my tiny window in inky velvet. The universe before me splattered with sparkling lights and swirls of matter that even while I'm in awe of it, living within it, living the life of wanting to understand and be a part of it, I can not quite grasp, understand or believe it.
Or perhaps I haven't been to the space station in over a year. Life and finances happened to me and the rest of the world. But, I received a call a week ago and am scheduled to go back into orbit. Nervous and excited, I can't wait to see our glorious planet, my true home, from my isolated floating box - my second home. Sitting in my heavy second skin, I hear the countdown, halfway through 5...4...3... I'm finally going back, I hold my breath and close my eyes, imaging the view, wondering if it was ever real. 2...I'll see everything I know and everything I dream of in a strange disconnected way. Where I belong. 1. The rockets explode as a far away voice declares "Take Off!", fire gushes toward the earth as we move up slowly at first, hesitant, then completely free. We sing toward the forever open sky. This is the perfect moment of inbetween-ness, of both worlds as one, flying through the threshold of both what I understand, can't comprehend, and yearn for. This is the perfect day as an astronaut.
© Ash Huntley
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