Inspiration is something that we hope our children will experience while young enough to give them the focus and motivation to achieve all that life holds! But the question is how to accomplish this? I've come across a book that I believe will fill your pre-teen's soul to the brim! "Find Where The Wind Goes" is written by Dr. Mae Jemison and she writes about her life and how it evolved. Dr. Jemison was the first African-American woman, as well as the first woman of color throughout the world, to go into space.
She takes you through her life, starting at a very young age, when she lived in Alabama. Her memories are vague, as she moved away as a young child, but you feel the small town life where she remembers walking alongside the hot, boiling curb or balancing along the edge of a pond. Her family moved to Chicago when she was four and thus began opportunities for a girl full of talent, interest and curiosity. It was obvious that Mae was very smart because school work came easy. As she grew older, she took more and more difficult classes, especially in the science fields. She enjoyed physics, chemistry and biology. She even skipped a grade when teachers found that 7th grade class work just wasn't challenging enough. When she went to Stanford University, she had heard about biomedical engineering and wanted to major in it. But what she discovered in the College of Engineering was that she wasn't taken seriously. Being one of very few women majoring in engineering in the late 60's and early 70's, along with being of African descent, she found that she had to work even harder than the "regular" students to convince the professors that she was actually smart and had a huge interest in this field. She had much to overcome, but she threw herself into school, and also civic and community affairs for the school, which helped her keep her focus on not just improving herself, but in helping others at the same time.
She began college at 16 and graduated in chemical engineering at age 20. She then went on to medical school at Cornell University and thought she knew all about studying and putting forth the effort needed to excel. But medical school taught her that merely studying wasn't enough. She learned that being in medical school was a process of constant learning, memorizing and reading, in order to stay current with her assignments. She realized that she would have to work harder than she ever had before. And it all paid off. After graduating from Cornell, she did something that most doctors from this prestigious school didn't do. She went to on to practice medicine in a third-world country. During her Cornell education, she visited Kenya, Cuba and Cambodia and decided that she wanted to go to a country that was in great need of medical help. She ended up living and practicing in West Africa. After living and working in Sierra Leone for two and ½ years, she gained more from those people than they obtained from her. This experience helped mold her, and continues to help guide her, as she works with people from around the world.
She came back to Los Angeles and decided that she was now old enough to apply for something she had always dreamed of doing: becoming a NASA astronaut. She was chosen over 2,000 qualified applicants. I found this to be very interesting - that she still desired and longed to go into space even after the Challenger disaster. That event didn't deter her goal in the slightest.
After reading about all that she has accomplished, (she still continues to work at helping others by heading up organizations and companies), I find myself reflecting on how hard she worked and never, ever let anything get in the way of her goals. I think this is an excellent book for 10 and older to get an insight as to how important it is to set life-long goals NOW. I don't think that you have to be brilliant to do great work. You just have to set goals and then be prepared to work hard to achieve them. This book gives the reader the inside workings of what makes a great person. And, after all, isn't there potential for great people inside us all?
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This leads me to my next book, "The
Three Questions", by Jon J.
Muth. Here is a beautiful picture book that is based on a story by Leo Tolstoy.
A young boy ponders three questions: "When is the best time to do things?
Who is the most important one? and What is the right thing to do?" He asks
his friends Sonja the heron, Gogol the monkey and Pushkin the dog. Each animal
gives him answers according to their own experience. But, when he decides to
asks the aged and wise old turtle, he learns much more than he thought possible.
This book will give 6 and older much food for thought. It would be an excellent story to lead to discussions from family members about what we all can accomplish in our lifetimes!