Dream of Going to the Moon, Part 1
Daeun had drawn the same picture forty-three times. A rocket, obviously, everyone was drawing rockets, plus a moon with a face, and in the corner (barely visible, really), a tiny version of herself waving. Something about it never sat right. How was a drawing this small supposed to go anywhere?
The Contest That Changed Everything
Her teacher had mentioned it weeks back, almost in passing: a space art contest. The winners wouldn’t just get a certificate pinned to a board somewhere, their drawings would be shrunk onto a tiny disc and flown all the way to the actual Moon. Most classmates went bigger after that. Daeun just sat there, eraser in hand, not really sure what “true” was supposed to look like, only that it wasn’t this.
What Daeun Finally Drew
Attempt forty-four, she stopped trying to impress anyone. She drew her grandmother’s hands instead, the ones that always smelled faintly of hand cream when they tucked the blanket up under her chin. She drew Bori, the dog, who waited by the window every day at 3:40 whether Daeun was actually coming home or not. Her own room, a little messy, the way it actually looked. And then, small, almost an afterthought in the corner, the moon, just watching. “This is the part I want it to know,” she said to no one in particular.
Weeks later, she’d honestly half forgotten about it by then, an email showed up. Her drawing had been picked. Somewhere right now, a disc smaller than a fingernail is carrying a grandmother’s hands, a dog named Bori, and a slightly messy bedroom toward the longest trip a drawing has ever taken. Funny how the smallest, truest things end up going the farthest.
Things like this have really happened before. People have long sent small, personal items along on real space missions, Voyager carried a golden record filled with sounds and images of Earth, and Apollo astronauts sometimes tucked family photos into their gear. Just like Daeun’s drawing, it’s often the most personal things that travel the farthest.
Your Turn Now
- What did Daeun draw on her forty-fourth attempt?
- What was Daeun’s drawing carried on, and where was it headed?
- If you could send a drawing to space, what would you draw?
(Think about it: 1. Her grandmother’s hands, her dog Bori, her own room, and a small moon. 2. A tiny disc, headed to the Moon. 3. There’s no single answer, share your story with someone!)
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