To Infinity and Beyond: Tackett's Journey to Space Camp

Hello, my name is Melissa Tackett, and I am the other half of the infamous Kelly and Tackett dynamic space camp duo! My love for all things space started at an early age, when I first watched this outrageously awesome and terrible Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen straight to VCR movie: The Case of the U.S. Space Camp Mission.

Image source: here

In fact, I think it was when I was dancing and singing along to the song, "We're Gonna Leave Our Footprints on the Moon" that I first realized  that I desperately wanted to attend Space Camp. Maybe it was the awesome space jump suits. Perhaps it was the terribly off-key singing about being, "Born to follow in the footsteps of Apollo." Whatever the reason, I knew that Space Camp was my mission, and I knew I had to find a way to get there.

Sadly, I never made it to Space Camp as a kid, but once I became a 6th grade science teacher, I knew that I had to make my dream a reality. I then met Missy Kelly, a new gifted teacher in my building who shared my enthusiasm and passion to attend Space Camp. She and I both started researching scholarships and grants so that we could attend Space Camp together, and in the fall of 2011, we both applied for a scholarship to attend Space Camp in the summer of 2012. We crossed our fingers, sent in our essays, and awaited our results.

Sadly, we did not receive the scholarship, and neither of us could afford to attend Space Camp on our own. I had just gotten married and received my school district's District Teacher of the Year award, and was very busy starting my masters in Educational Technology. We both decided to give it a try again in the fall of 2012.

That fall, we both filled out our applications and essays again and crossed our fingers (again) that our Space Camp dreams would finally come true. We waited and waited, and finally, one afternoon, I received an email notification that made me squeal with glee:

Ahhh! I jumped up and down with excitement and started calling everyone I knew! Then, I started to panic. What if Missy didn't get in with me? We had to go to Space Camp together! I immediately picked up the phone and called her. We both had a out of the ordinary tone in our voices when we asked each other, "Did you get an email today?" When we both realized that we BOTH got in-our joy was uncontrollable!  We even realized that we could be roommates! What more could we ask for?

Ever since, we have been planning for the adventure of our lives. Our dreams of attending Space Camp have finally come true.

Space Camp has no idea what it's in for when Commanders Tackett and Kelly arrive in June...