The Best Day Job in the Universe - Last Post

Thanks for letting me share my day job with you. It truly is a unique experience. For a final post, I thought I'd share some photos with you. And if you are ever in Utah, please let me know. I'd be happy to give you a taste of what I do.

Our classroom, where the science magic happens. Not the fictional futuristic kind, just the real stuff that we are discovering every day.

Our old planetarium. I don't have pictures of the new one yet. This StarLab system worked great for a decade, but technology moves on. The old "tin can with holes" projector just doesn't cut it. Our new one, fully digital, is from Digitalis and features all sorts of nifty features. I love my new toy...

Looking forward on the Odyssey bridge. This is the simulator I fly. It looks better in real life.

The Voyager bridge. It's hard to believe this simulator is twenty years old. Thousands of children and adults have fought pirate invaders, Klingons, and Romulans from this bridge. This set has seen tears of anger and sorrow, moments of panic and elation, devious diplomatic dealings, and every other human emotion. It's incredible what one person with a vision can bring to pass. The space center would not exist without my boss, Victor Williamson. He is the heart and soul of the center.

Thanks for letting me share. If you want more, check out the website or the blog.

The Best Day Job in the Universe - The Power of Imagination

Adrian Stevens is running through the Romulan base with a raiding party from the Voyager. Phaser fire echoes from a distant hallway. Red lights flash, warnings blare. The Romulan rebels lead us to the kitchen where we hope to secure food. The security marines mark the location of water supplies. The Voyager’s tanks are dry.

In reality, it’s 1 am. My name is not Adrian Stevens, that’s the Voyager’s quartermaster, a part I’m playing for the camp. I’m charging through the school hallways with a group of campers and costumed staff. The red lights are real - siren lights plugged in wherever we can find outlets in the hallways. Battle music plays over the school’s speakers. The kitchen is also real, staged beforehand with supplies that the crew is supposed to locate and steal. I’m thinking, “I’m twice the age of anyone on this camp. This is slightly ridiculous. But I’m having fun!”

Behold the power of imagination. Listening to the campers, it’s obvious which ones have no concept of imagination. It’s sad, but true. We usually have a handful or two on our camps who just can’t let reality go. These are the annoying people at movies who have to comment about everything through the whole show. These are the people who can’t see what isn’t there. These are the poor children who notice the sneakers on the monsters and Romulans and comment on the background music. These are the children who have forgotten the wonder of imagination.

I pity them. Myself, I love immersing myself in something until it feels real - books, movies, my job. I want to live in space. I want to fly starships through nebulaes. So I do the next best thing. I pretend. And I get paid for taking kids with me.

But think about it. Without imagination, without the game of “what if”, where would we be? Exactly where we started. I saw a documentary about the way Star Trek changed our lives. Forty years ago, no one thought it was more than a weird tv show that was over. Now we have communicators. We’re working on transporters and starships. Women in command positions? Almost common-place. Aliens? Not yet.

Behold the power of imagination. I’m fortunate enough to work with people at a place where imagination reigns supreme. Now if only we can light that fire in those who attend, we’ll have changed the future.

For more information on our camps, check out the space center website. For more stories about Adrian Stevens, check the blog archives for the space center on the Troubadour. For more about me, Jaleta Clegg, check out my website. Thanks for listening!

The Best Day Job in the Universe - Not Today

I’ve posted about the glamorous, exciting parts of my job. This week it’s been nothing like that. My summer job at the space center involves food, lots of it. For anyone who has never done food service, it’s a long, hard, physically exhausting job. Not glamorous. Not exciting, unless the food burns. It’s messy, dirty work, but it’s so necessary to a successful camp.

No one ever writes about the cooks and janitors on the space stations and starships. Did they ever get screen time on Star Trek? Nope. Food magically appeared from a replicator. No one is ever shown scrubbing the bridge floor. But it’s a fact of life those jobs have to be done. We don’t have Rosie the Robot yet.

My husband found me sobbing in the bedroom one day. My problem? My characters had exciting, grand adventures. I spent my days wiping butts and noses, scrubbing dishes that just had to be scrubbed again a few minutes later, washing clothes that were just going to get dirty again. Life just isn’t very exciting for 99.9% of us.

Escapism. That’s why we write fiction. That’s what the space center delivers with each mission. But just like any other job, the space center requires non-glamorous jobs. During the summer, I spend my time in the kitchen. During the school year, I spend most of my time playing secretary and impersonating my boss on the phone.

So maybe the next novel I write will be about a janitor on a space station. But it won’t be about her everyday job. No one wants to read about that. We want excitement, intrigue, romance, suspense - we want escapism. We want dreams. We want space travel!

Sorry, my inner geek has escaped again. Time to make a big bowl of eyeball jello for dinner tonight...

The Best Day Job in the Universe, Working at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center

Where do I even begin to describe our space center? It’s the most unique place in the world. Located inside a nondescript elementary school in suburban Utah, the center houses five starship simulators, a high-tech classroom, and a brand spanking new state-of-the-art portable digital planetarium. I’ve tried many times over the years to classify what we do at the school. I’m a certified teacher, I should be able to list objectives and outcomes and lesson plans. None of them even come close to capturing the experience.

We run several programs- a field trip program for 5th and 6th grade students, summer camps for 10-14yo kids, after school and weekend simulations for ages 10+, planetarium shows for any private group that schedules one, plus whatever new idea the boss dreams up. So why is it the best job in the universe? Because it involves storytelling, astronomy, science fiction, monsters; everything that makes imagination fun.

Let me start with our simulators. Pretend you are part of a private group scheduled to fly in the Odyssey simulator. You arrive at the school and wait in the lobby until all of your group is assembled. Your flight director greets you, gives you a chance to use the restroom, then lines your group up in front of the “transporter”. Another staff member beams your group through, one by one. You emerge on the other side on a starship bridge, lights and controls and engine rumble; the works. Each member of your group is assigned a station and given a uniform. You are trained to work your controls. The flight director briefs your crew on their assignment. Then the real fun begins.

We specialize in immersive simulations of futuristic space travel. Star Trek LARPing, for anyone familiar with the term. Live action role-playing taken to extremes. No, the simulators do not move. This is not an amusement park ride. This is interactive storytelling with lights and sound effects and actors. The ship is as real as your imagination. Monsters and aliens may attack. Your ship may be sabotaged. You may crash into an asteroid and die. The stories are never the same because the flight director plays off your comments and actions, changing the story as needed.

And I get paid to tell you these stories. That’s one perk of my job. I love hearing the crew scream in terror, or cheer as they manage to complete their mission despite the threat of imminent death. I love the magic we create. I love seeing kids transformed by their experience, learning that they can stand up for their convictions no matter who opposes them. I love the excitement and the energy of our staff of sometimes obnoxious teens.

I love my job. Flight simulator is only one of my titles, though. I also claim planetarium director, curriculum specialist, costumer, story consultant, office assistant, Klingon lunchlady, and Ultimate Queen of the Galaxy. Really. My boss told me I could have it in lieu of a raise.

One of our 17yo flight directors, a male, just said, “Where is my Hannah Montana wig?” Yep, I love my job.