Your Career: Shoot for the Stars

Last month, I had the honour of meeting Commander Chris Hadfield. I was at a conference in Grande Prairie—Growing the North, and he was the keynote speaker. His presentation was very inspiring and got me thinking about what it takes for a person to achieve his or her goals.

You may be wondering what astronauts have to do with forestry careers. Well, not a whole lot. But this astronaut has taken steps to follow his dreams in such a way that could inspire just about anyone, no matter what their career goals are.

Leading up to his arrival at the conference, my colleague, Barbara, and I were trying to think of a way to impress the former commander of the International Space Station. We had some wooden building blocks at our booth, which we use to engage people in building with wood, and Barbara came up with the brilliant idea of building a wooden rocket ship in hopes that Commander Hadfield would be more likely to stop by our booth and chat with us. This is what we pulled together:

After he spoke, several conference attendees lined up to get copies of their books signed. I was ecstatic to meet him, and we made sure to tell him about the wood block rocket ship that was waiting for him at our booth.

When he was finished signing books he came over to inspect our rocket ship. He told us that it was the best all-wood rocket he’d ever seen (It was also the only all-wood rocket he’d ever seen).

I’m not usually one to get star-struck to the point of complete nervousness, but this interaction was definitely an exception. I admire Chris Hadfield for many reasons. One of the most inspiring being that he never gave up on his dreams. As a child, he dreamed of being an astronaut, even though there were no Canadian astronauts at that time. Despite that, he still took all the necessary steps to prepare for his dream job, just in case the opportunity ever appeared. And I’ll bet he was grateful he had prepared when the Canadian Space Agency eventually announced they were seeking astronauts. 

Whatever your career aspirations, if you take opportunities to prepare yourself, you will open doors for your future.

If you happen to be interested in forestry careers, whether it’s engineering, environmental sciences, skilled trades, or equipment operation, you can learn more about preparing yourself for these careers on our Career List page. Our Scholarships page will also be helpful if you’re planning to attend post-secondary studies.

Chris Hadfield shot for the stars when pursuing his dreams. What will you shoot for?