I Think About The Personal Accomplishment, But

Of Course I Was Delighted The Flight Was Over, But I Still Had To Worry About Cleaning Up Inside The Cabin, I Had To Worry About The Hatch, How To Get In The Sling, And So On.

I'd Like To Say I Was Smart Enough To Finish Six Grades In Five Years, But I Think Perhaps The Teacher Was Just Glad To Get Rid Of Me.

But When I Was Selected, After My Very First Tour Of Squadron Duty, To Become One Of The Youngest Candidates For The Test Pilot School, I Began To Realize, Maybe You Are A Little Bit Better.

So Everything Turned Out Fine, And We Were Given The Opportunity To Go To Washington And Be Briefed On The Project Of Man In Space, And Given The Opportunity To Choose Whether We Wanted To Get Involved Or Not.

I Woke Up An Hour Before I Was Supposed To, And Started Going Over The Mental Checklist: Where Do I Go From Here, What Do I Do? I Don't Remember Eating Anything At All, Just Going Through The Physical, Getting Into The Suit. We Practiced That So Much, It Was All Rote.