Grit of an Astronaut

Christopher is quite random at times, and this is one of those times. There is really no context for this chapter of the book. Before this, however, he was told he wasn’t allowed to do any more detective work by his father so I am assuming he has just gone off into one of the small places where he goes to think as he mentions in the book so that he can be by himself. “I think I would make a very good astronaut. To be a good astronaut you have to be intelligent and I’m intelligent. You also have to understand how machines work and I’m good at understanding how machines work. You also have to be someone who would like being on their own in a tiny spacecraft thousands and thousands of miles away from the surface of the earth and not panic or get claustrophobia or homesick or insane. And I really like little spaces, so long as there is no one else in them with me.” (p.50) When I was younger I used to love the thought of being an astronaut, I loved space so much I would watch NASA TV when I got home from school. Although being an astronaut is no longer my preferred career I’m definitely still fascinated by space and astronomy. The reasons Christopher gave for wanting to become an astronaut would probably be the negatives for me, claustrophobia is never something I’d thought of but it does seem quite awful, think about staying in a tiny space for months at a time miles away from the closest human not living with you, and all of the chances where something could go wrong, it honestly sounds like constant paranoia, to be honest. I suppose he would enjoy all of those things however because of things like how he doesn’t like strangers and there definitely wouldn’t be any strangers in space. I’d also like to think that Christopher would enjoy the repetitiveness and preciseness of living in space because of the fact that he likes everything exactly the same. He won’t even let the furniture be moved an inch or his head begins to hurt. The way the passage is written reads as if these were all positive reasons for living in space however they clearly are very negative, and pretty horrible to imagine.  Living in a place for that long also seems like it would be quite boring, especially seeing the same people and doing the same things, astronauts must find it hard to stay sane in space for long periods of time.