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<click> My name is Cynthia Simmons and I am Instrument Project Manager in the Flight

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Projects Directorate here at Goddard Space Flight Center and specific work

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Project Management over in house instruments and the mission I am working is ICESat,

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Atlas.

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(Music)

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When I was a young girl, I thought I would be a write. Then I thought I was going to be

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a Physcian a Neuro surgern, when I became an engineer

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I thought I wanted to be an astronaut and I was actually on that path

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when I was in the military. I never imagine, in my time

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or my experiences

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that I would be given the opportunities that I've been given to work

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all these incredibile missions, I never dream that

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The first day when I was

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actually a civil servant, it was like walking on cloud nine

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those all the words that are used a lot, but

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I was in a dream world for a long time.

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Originally I am from St. Louis Missouri, that's where I was

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born and raised. My mother

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moved us from the city, because she wanted education opportunities.

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We're extremely poor, I remember

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many times, but we didn't know it at the time because it looked like this was

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the thing you should do. We would be eating hot dogs, that ever kid loves to do,

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and my mom had a hot cup of Lipton tea and a slice

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of white bread that she toasted and then she was dipping it in

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She would sweeten, we thought we want that, but she would say "no, you need to eat

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hot dog". What I later learned she didn't have money for

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enough food for herself.

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What I feel most grateful for and most

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excited about what I've done here. I've been able to

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participate in a lot of different mission and not only

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size, but scope of science and where they are going

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into space, what are they doing and I was able to participate in the design

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as well as leading teams who are designing.

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No matter what your path of life is

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no matter the circumstances any time alone the life

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don't let that define who you are

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and how you react and use that to

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enjoy life. I have learned in all these experiences that it's really important

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to learn how to love life

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appreciate what you have, to learn how to enjoy every moment

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appreciate every opportunity

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seek the next opportunity, make sure when you, I always say when I open a door, I want to make sure

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that there is at least two doors behind there, and if I only find one

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because you aren't all knowing, look for window. So you have at least two

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paths on to the next thing.

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Don't let where you are right now, constrict where your vector

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has to go in live.

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(music)

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(music)

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end