[Pyro7480]

Don't be so hard on yourself. You're probably doing a better job in faith than you think.

Thank you much for your encouraging words. You don't know how much they mean to me, after the discussion we had recently.

Kids like me and my sibs in school either made straight A's with no homework or B's which stood for bored (which is why we went to public school for a time). High school was a little better, but when your best grades are in math and science, you get pushed in that direction, and many times, that's a disservice to the kid.

Man, do I know about that! From a very early age, I had many interests, but above all, astronomy/space travel, current events, and history. Since I was really good at arithmetic too and read a lot about science, I did really well in science and math, and because that is really empathesized in aerospace fields, that's what I focused on until very late (my freshman year of college). But when I reached high school, I struggled in alegbra because I was put into a honors level class (due to my high scores on the entrance test). I also did poorly in my first semester of physics. Still, I clinged to my original goal to become an astronaut. It wasn't until my second year of college that I decided to go into political science and history, which is basically my other major interest since an early age. I'm due to graduate at end of this semester.

[Desdemona]

...because that is really empathesized in aerospace fields, that's what I focused on until very late (my freshman year of college).

Really? Cool. My dad is a retired aerospace engineer, brother J is a mechanical engineer who is currently a Marine helicopter pilot (waiting for orders at the moment), brother M is a computer/electrical engineer working on missle guidance (and a master's in EE).

Still, I clinged to my original goal to become an astronaut.

Not a bad goal, but defitely not the easiest. For a time, my dad was working at the Navy's Air Test Center (where the test pilot school is). Oh my.... I was in class with the test pilots' kids. A friend who drove us to swimming practice for a year, left there to go to astronaut training. He's been on CNN a lot. We went down to the Cape to see his first launch (Discovery, when they launched the Ulysses probe). Pretty cool (all those aligators).