WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.630 align:middle line:84% Arizona has such a special place in my heart. 00:00:03.630 --> 00:00:05.520 align:middle line:90% I was talking with those-- 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:08.070 align:middle line:84% with the honors students earlier. 00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:84% A student asked, wasn't that hard bouncing from place 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:13.830 align:middle line:90% to place to place? 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:16.530 align:middle line:84% And also I should mention these were mental health 00:00:16.530 --> 00:00:17.340 align:middle line:90% institutions. 00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:21.420 align:middle line:84% So every four years my family had to move to another location 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:24.900 align:middle line:84% and usually these were not in the greatest places, which 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:27.300 align:middle line:84% made for an interesting childhood to say, oh-- 00:00:27.300 --> 00:00:29.040 align:middle line:84% some of them we lived on the grounds 00:00:29.040 --> 00:00:30.670 align:middle line:90% of a mental institution. 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:33.930 align:middle line:84% So that was not awesome when I'd have 00:00:33.930 --> 00:00:37.020 align:middle line:84% to tell people where I lived and where they made a bus stop just 00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:37.770 align:middle line:90% for us. 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:39.270 align:middle line:90% And it said welcome to the-- 00:00:39.270 --> 00:00:42.420 align:middle line:90% Gowanda Psychiatric Facility. 00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:44.502 align:middle line:84% But I will say that my parents, no matter 00:00:44.502 --> 00:00:46.710 align:middle line:84% how much they worked, no matter how much they worked, 00:00:46.710 --> 00:00:50.160 align:middle line:84% they always made it a point for us to be outside. 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:53.490 align:middle line:84% And specifically here in Arizona, my dad 00:00:53.490 --> 00:00:54.840 align:middle line:90% was always, always working. 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.090 align:middle line:84% But on the weekends, he'd be sure to take us up 00:00:57.090 --> 00:00:59.970 align:middle line:84% to Camelback Mountain or to Superstition Mountain. 00:00:59.970 --> 00:01:02.070 align:middle line:84% And we would know the names of minerals, 00:01:02.070 --> 00:01:05.220 align:middle line:84% and rocks, and chuparosa, ocotillo. 00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:08.850 align:middle line:84% I could identify basically the night sky. 00:01:08.850 --> 00:01:10.650 align:middle line:84% And you didn't have to go that far away 00:01:10.650 --> 00:01:11.910 align:middle line:90% back in the day in Phoenix. 00:01:11.910 --> 00:01:14.880 align:middle line:84% Now you'd probably have to drive a long ways away. 00:01:14.880 --> 00:01:17.340 align:middle line:84% But in third grade I could tell most 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:19.660 align:middle line:84% of the constellations in the sky, 00:01:19.660 --> 00:01:22.200 align:middle line:84% so I never truly felt lonesome because I always 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:26.490 align:middle line:84% had names for things no matter where I was in the country. 00:01:26.490 --> 00:01:29.670 align:middle line:84% This is kind of an apology to my father for sometimes 00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:32.880 align:middle line:84% not always appreciating what he was doing until much later. 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:34.440 align:middle line:90% And this is called "Mosquitoes." 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:37.090 align:middle line:90% 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:40.480 align:middle line:84% And it took place in Glendale here. 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:41.770 align:middle line:90% "Mosquitoes." 00:01:41.770 --> 00:01:43.360 align:middle line:84% When my father wanted to point out 00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:46.090 align:middle line:84% galaxies, or Andromeda, or the Seven Sisters, 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:50.050 align:middle line:84% I would complain of the huzz of mosquitoes 00:01:50.050 --> 00:01:54.340 align:middle line:84% or of the yawning moon quiet and that slow summer air. 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:57.850 align:middle line:84% All I wanted was to go inside into our cooled house and watch 00:01:57.850 --> 00:02:00.490 align:middle line:90% TV or paint my nails. 00:02:00.490 --> 00:02:04.300 align:middle line:84% What does a 15-year-old girl know of patience? 00:02:04.300 --> 00:02:07.060 align:middle line:84% What did I know of the steady turn of whole moon 00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:09.639 align:middle line:90% valleys cresting into focus. 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:11.710 align:middle line:84% Standing there in our driveway with him, 00:02:11.710 --> 00:02:14.470 align:middle line:84% I smacked my legs, my arms, and my face 00:02:14.470 --> 00:02:17.080 align:middle line:84% while I waited for him to find whatever pinhole of light 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:18.790 align:middle line:90% he wanted me to see. 00:02:18.790 --> 00:02:22.420 align:middle line:84% At night, when I washed my face, I'd find bursts of blood 00:02:22.420 --> 00:02:25.090 align:middle line:84% and dried bodies slapped into my skin. 00:02:25.090 --> 00:02:27.970 align:middle line:84% I'd complain at breakfast about how I can't do this anymore, 00:02:27.970 --> 00:02:28.600 align:middle line:90% dad. 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:30.550 align:middle line:90% I have more homework now, dad. 00:02:30.550 --> 00:02:35.440 align:middle line:84% I can't go to school with bites all over my face now, dad. 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:39.700 align:middle line:84% And now-- now I hardly ever say no. 00:02:39.700 --> 00:02:43.030 align:middle line:84% He has plans to go stargazing with his grandsons 00:02:43.030 --> 00:02:45.970 align:middle line:90% and for once I do not protest. 00:02:45.970 --> 00:02:47.680 align:middle line:90% He has plans. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.110 align:middle line:84% I know one day he won't ask me, I 00:02:50.110 --> 00:02:51.850 align:middle line:84% know one day he won't be there to show 00:02:51.850 --> 00:02:55.180 align:middle line:84% me the rings of Saturn glowing gold through the eyepiece. 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:57.850 align:middle line:84% He won't be there to show me how the moons of Jupiter 00:02:57.850 --> 00:03:00.820 align:middle line:84% jump if you catch them on a clear night. 00:03:00.820 --> 00:03:04.570 align:middle line:84% I know one day I will look up into the night sky searching, 00:03:04.570 --> 00:03:05.440 align:middle line:90% searching. 00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:08.470 align:middle line:84% I know the mosquitoes will still have their way with me 00:03:08.470 --> 00:03:11.215 align:middle line:84% and I know my father won't hear me complain. 00:03:11.215 --> 00:03:14.050 align:middle line:90% 00:03:14.050 --> 00:03:16.510 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:16.510 --> 00:03:18.980 align:middle line:90% 00:03:18.980 --> 00:03:22.030 align:middle line:84% I had forgotten-- I know here many 00:03:22.030 --> 00:03:24.040 align:middle line:84% of the researchers from the Cassini mission 00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:26.090 align:middle line:90% are here from Arizona. 00:03:26.090 --> 00:03:27.997 align:middle line:84% So as I was seeing that, oh, Saturn-- 00:03:27.997 --> 00:03:29.080 align:middle line:90% I'm-- I did not plan that. 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:31.160 align:middle line:90% I did not plan that.