Gene unfortunately answered “no” to the question asked by a child in the audience earlier today. Gene Cernan, one of three astronauts who have been on the moon twice, held a Q&A in the Youth Pavilion after his documentary, ‘The Last Man on the Moon,’ played this afternoon.
Inspiration filled the room as Captain Cernan responded to all of the young kids questions. Encouraging every young kid, in every small town in the US, to go after their dreams was the biggest motivator for him to make the documentary. And sure enough, every child in the audience left feeling excited – Gene drove home the point that every kid in the audience was already good enough to do what they want to do, they just needed to try.
Throughout the talk he reflected on moments with his family, and mentioned how his father would tell him he might not be the best at what he’s doing, but to just do the best he could and someday he would surprise himself. As someone who started off flying planes, and ended up spending 600 hours in space, he sure did live up to that advice.
Stressing the importance of having passion for what you do, Captain Cernan mentioned how where it’s in a classroom, or a basketball court, to always shoot for the moon. In his last quote from the documentary he says,
“Dream the impossible. Go out and make it happen. What can’t you do?” to which he later responded, “Nothing.”