Like during any other college kid's spring break, I have done many things I did not foresee myself doing just two weeks ago. And just like with the inebriated specimens seen on "Girls Gone Wild," we've been caught in the act by the TV cameras (e.g., Country Music Television). How would I have known two weeks ago that I would run Cat-5 cable from a power supply to our Hab's control center, or power up a Diesel generator named Wendy? Such promiscuously nerdy behavior just exploded without my consent!

You know, a janitor and an astronaut have a lot more in common than one might think: they've got to handle anything thrown their way. I particularly remember the janitorial staff at my high school, The Latin School of Chicago, because they could handle anything from 2nd graders puking on carpet, to filling an auditorium with hundreds of fold-out chairs in like 10 minutes, to unlocking anything in the building (even when they didn't have the key!); they could handle just about anything.

While at the MDRS, I have learned that the job description is quite similar: handle anything. I came here planning to do research on radiation shielding techniques and to plot radiation levels in the area, all of which has been accomplished. But being able to cook three meals, align a telescope, navigate by the sun's position, and program a repeater to setup a 15-mile radio communication network were tasks that were not on my agenda; though they had to be.

However, I am not the exception, rather the novice, because my crew mates have outshone me in such displays of dexterity. There's this expression one hears frequently if he/she grows up playing sports: "there's no 'I' in 'team'." In fact, I used to excel at earning myself many laps around the gym by brashly replying, "but there is a 'me'."

But the team is really what it's about when on a crew, such as the one here at MDRS: supporting your crew, doing what you can to make it happen, whatever 'it' is. On the flip side though, there is not an abolition of the individual; rather, the individual excels through the expansion of his/her horizons so that previously obfuscated landscapes become illuminated with the acquisition of unplanned knowledge. Diesel generators, and Cat-5 cables this year -- maybe next year I'll learn how to do a Jger-bomb, while simultaneously flashing 15 strangers and getting filmed by camera crews whose work owns late night TV commercial sets. Until then.

Jason Sherwin, PAO
MDRS Crew 47