Day 4 Space Camp Adventure: Please Don't Drown the Cadets

Please Don’t Drown the Cadets

People go through many different challenges and those challenges can have varying

degrees. People also may have different fears that are challenges to them. Some people have arachnophobia – the fear of spiders, or aerophobia – the fear of flying. There’s also mysophobia, monophobia, thanatophobia, aquaphobia, and acrophobia: the fear of germs, being alone, death, water, and heights, respectively. And yes, NASA has even studied spiders in space, so you can’t get away from those creepy crawlers, not even millions of miles away in the space station.

Space Camp has a tendency to help you overcome these fears. Well, maybe not alektorophobia – the fear of chickens, as there weren’t many chickens at Space Camp, except at lunch and dinner. They served a lot of chicken, so yea, maybe that would be difficult for someone who hates chicken.

Day 4 of Space Camp was the water survival challenges. There were three in all. Two of the three were to simulate situations in which you would need to work through your fears if you had any, in order to survive some type of helicopter crash. The third was a simulation of a parachute jump out of a plane in which you actually zip-lined down into the water. For someone who isn’t a good swimmer, and who has a fear of heights, this can be a very traumatic experience. This is me.

Daily, I checked the schedule, fearing that the time would come when I would need to brace myself for these events. Daily, I breathed a sigh of relief, when I realized today wasn’t the day. Day 4, I wasn’t so lucky. Day 4 was the day when everyone would partake in the water survival challenge. Perhaps it’s the words, survival in the sentence. Doesn’t do much for my nerves as you can imagine.

Two summers ago, my husband decided he was going through a mid-life crisis and wanted some adventure in his life, okay, maybe not a mid-life crisis, but it sure felt like that to me. We went to Costa Rica. During the rainy season. To zip-line. And do rope bridges. Yea, you know that fear of heights? Well, that’s me. Terrified with a capital T. Worst part? I had a cast on my ankle from falling down the stairs the week before. I forgot to mention, I'm clumsy too. I did every single zip-line in Costa Rica, but almost divorced my husband in the process thinking this was his way of torturing me for putting too much starch in his shorts.

Fast forward to day four of Space Camp, and there I was nervous as hell, trying not to let on to my comrades that I was actually freaking out. I offered to take pictures of people as they were going up until my turn. I thought watching them go down and having a great time would ease my fear, it didn't. I got the harness on, which let me tell you is a major adult wedgie. I got my helmet on and was given the okay to climb the stairs. With each step up that I took, my heart sped up a little bit more and my nerves left me with a huge knot in my stomach along with remnants of the day's lunch; and guess what - we had chicken, until I was finally at the top of the platform, freaking scared out of my wits, to the point of hyperventilating. Even concentrating on the hot guy at the top who was harnessing me in, I was completely numb. I was fighting back the tears but when he hooked that final carabineer clip, I just lost it. Tears flowing, heart racing, and me thinking, this was it, I’m dying up here with a freaking wedgie. Our crew trainer, Jett Puff, not really her name, but rather her call sign, talked me down and encouraged me to stay strong. Hot guy, not his name or his call sign, just my little nickname for him, then told me that no one has died yet. Yet? Did he have to use the word yet? He then released the cable and I was gliding backwards towards the water, my feet dangling, tears stinging my eyes. Note to self, when going on expeditions that will make one cry, skip the mascara. I landed with a plop and a splash and two more adorable lifeguards asked if I was okay. Once they realized I was just scared out of my wits, they helped out of the zip-line and to safe sanctuary of the ground, in which I did the sign of the cross four times, and I'm not even catholic.

  

          Luckily the walk back to the rest of the crew was long enough that I could recover and no one would be the wiser that I just did the scariest thing of my life. Next, was the dunking tank, which simulated a helicopter crash. Six cadets are put into something that vaguely resembles a helicopter, more like a really large tin can with a couple of seats and windows in it that once the tin can, er helicopter, crash lands in the water, you attempt to swim out in an orderly fashion. Though buoyancy wasn’t my friend that day, the water rushing in once we hit the water caused my adrenaline to all time high. It was difficult waiting for my number to be called to swim out. My survival instincts kicked in and all I thought about was pushing past the person ahead of me. They weren’t part of my team anyway, so why not? It was probably less than thirty seconds for that person to swim out, but it felt longer than that, much, much longer.

            Once our whole group did a sound off of our numbers and we were all accounted for, we  The chilly water spraying down from the helicopter was in contrast to the warmth of the lake we were in. I enjoyed those last two maneuvers so much, I got in line to do those again. I did not attempt the zip-line for a second time. One wedgy that night was enough.

swam towards Tribo, a crew trainer who walked us through how to complete the helicopter rescue, with the rescue basket and all. We learned to sit with our arms and legs crossed in the rescue basket, which she restated as “crisscross, applesauce style” knowing we were teachers and would understand that reference.

Space Camp Day 1 Mission: Arrival

Day 1 Mission: Arrival.

Today starts the journey of a life long dream of mine, to go in space. Well, okay, so I’m not really going into space, but it’s the closest I will probably ever come to being in space. I was one of a group of teachers from around the world who applied and was accepted to Honeywell Educators Space Academy (HESA), in other words, Space Camp. Since I was a kid, I dreamed of going on missions to Mars and to the Moon. I used to play Star Trek as a kid with some of my friends. I never got to be the captain; I was always one of the crew. I’m hoping I might get to be captain for one of the missions this week; we will have to see how that plays out. In 2011, I headed down to Florida with my husband and  children to watch the last shuttle launch of the Endeavor, however, at the last minute the mission was cancelled due to some technical issue. I couldn’t get any more time off from work and ended up watching it on television. I cried when I called my boss and asked for a few more days to watch the launch and he said no. I since have a new boss who thinks me embracing my inner geek, is cool, and not only allowed me to miss the last few days of school, but also encouraged me to write about it.

When I applied to HESA, I think my husband thought I had lost my mind. “Aren’t you a little old for that?” He asked. Nope. You’re never too old to follow your dreams. “Aren’t you afraid of throwing up in the anti-gravity chamber?”  He asked. Yep. Now that one, I am a little afraid of. Let’s face it; I get dizzy watching the merry-go-rounds. It’ll be challenging for me, sure, but being able to conquer my fears and have the adventure of a life-time far outweighs my being afraid to make a fool of myself.

Today, I met teachers from all over the place. I’ve met teachers from Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Slovenia, teachers from California, Arizona, and New York. My suite mates at the University of Alabama, where we are staying are super cool. Tamera is from North Dakota, and Karen is from Mexico. We were all so excited to receive our flight suits tonight. We were all taking selfies and shamelessly posting them to Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat.  I put mine on as soon as I got it and wore it proudly. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually going to sleep in it. I don’t think I ever want to take it off!

Our first mission starts tomorrow at 7 a.m. We were told it was going to be a long 12-hour day. Hey, we’re teachers, we’re used to long hours. We were also told to bring our flight suits with us, as we will need them for part of the mission we will be working on. I am so giddy about the prospect of getting to wear that suit, I don’t know if I will even be able to sleep tonight!

Mission arrival: success! Over and out.