And, one thing I definitely enjoyed personally, from a selfish point of view, was exploration and going to places that I had never been to before and learning, you know, meeting the people and getting to know, new sights and sounds, etc.

I could do exploration in this particular career field, and it was a goal that, even if I didn't reach it, it was so high it seemed almost impossible, but even if I didn't reach it, I would still have a good time and a very satisfying career.

I consider myself to be very fortunate in my career, my timing has worked out.

And, so I set my goals on astronaut because, as a military aviator, it was, I considered that to be about the peak of a flying career.