The Anonymous Manifesto – Ep. 14 – The 8 Year Old With NASA PhD Goals

MS, 8, is full of imagination and usually says what’s on his mind. And even if he’s lecturing me on some aspects of life, like “One has to enjoy what they do for a living”, he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s said something profound. Here’s the transcript of my face to face interview with him.

*

Heart: How’s life? 
MS: Awesome.

*

Heart: Can it be any better? 
MS: Yeah. If we go to a restaurant like Cheeky’s or something. Yup.

*

Heart: Do you want to tell me a joke or something to start with? 
MS: OK, sure. Knock, knock.

*

Heart: Who’s there? 
MS: Cows go.

*

Heart: Cows go who. 
MS: No, no, they don’t. They go moo!

(Rolls eyes) People are just so weird these days.

*

Heart: Uggh, you got me again. (Laughs) What do you like best about 2nd grade? 
MS: Um, that’s hard. I like crafts, experiments, science, maybe. Science’s been the funnest, the best. Yeah.

*

Heart: Cool. How’s your summer so far? 
MS: Its only two days so far. So, its pretty good.

*

Heart: Are you planning some sleepovers or play dates? 
MS: Uh huh. Yeah.

*

Heart: Nice. Do you want to go on a long trip? 
MS: No. Like, in which car? You mean a road trip?

*

Heart: Do you have a preference? 
MS: No car.

*

Heart: Do you want to fly? 
MS: Yeah. OK. Ask me some real questions.

*

Heart: How’s your relationship with your brother? 
MS: Bad. I don’t like him. He’s mean. He says, “Boo, I scared you!” But, he doesn’t scare me at all. He annoys me. I’m going to kill him.

*

Heart: Oh come on. So, who do you like better, your mom or dad? Its a tough one, isn’t it? 
MS: Mom. Its easy actually. Not just because you’re here, even if daddy was talking to me, I would say, “Mom.”

*

Heart: Thank you. 
MS: Should I tell you why you are?

*

Heart: Yes, please. 
MS: Coz, you’re nice to me. Good. And daddy’s mean and not good.

*

Heart: There has to be one mean parent, right? Otherwise, how’ll you know the rules? 
MS: In school, we can know the rules.

*

Heart: So schools have rules? 
MS: Yeah, I don’t think your parents will send you to school if there’re no rules.

*

Heart: When your parents tell you, “Lets go to the temple.” What’s your first thought? 
MS: Which parent?

*

Heart: Lets go with mom first and then dad. 
MS: OK. If mom says it, I’ll say, “Do we have to go?” And then mom says, “Yup.” and I say, “Man!” and mom says, “OK, then lets go in my car.” and then I just stay in my room for the rest of my life maybe, coz, I don’t like mom’s car. Its so small, the size of a stop sign. Yup.

*

Heart: What about dad? 
MS: I’ll say, “Dad, you go there everyday, are you really that mean?” and he’ll say, “Yes.”

He’s really that mean.

*

Heart: Can  you imagine a world without plants and animals? 
MS: Yes, I can. If there’re no plants and animals, then human beings will be dead too. Because trees give us Oxygen and without that, we’ll be breathing Carbon dioxide for the rest of our lives. Carbon dioxide is very bad for your health. So, you’ll just die.

*

Heart: Can you imagine yourself going to India by yourself one day? 
MS: Yes. It’ll be a very fun ride, but once I go to India, I’ll be crying because I don’t like India. It’s really smelly and has cow poop.

*

Heart: You just broke my heart. OK, so, what do you want to be? 
MS: A NASA PhD, or the president of Google or the CEO of Apple. Any one of them. I think NASA PhD would be the best for me.

*

Heart: How do you become a NASA PhD, what do you’ve to study? 
MS: Um, Science? Astronomy, I think Engineering, Math. Yeah, OK, Math, Engineering, Astronomy and Science. I don’t think I need any, um, English or anything, but maybe I’ll need English for some vocabulary that I need to use about Space. So, I’ll need a little English too, yeah.

*

Heart: You’ll need a language to communicate your findings right? 
MS: Yeah, yeah, if I was going to say a really long word, and I didn’t say it in English, and people will be like, “What’s that thing he is trying to tell us?” And if we were trying to launch in Space, “Wait, wait, you forgot your thing.” And it was actually a helmet and I didn’t know how to say it, and that guy’ll die in Space because I couldn’t tell him to put on a “helmet”.

*

Heart: You’ve a very wild imagination. Do you dream? 
MS: Nothing really, I just sleep. I don’t have any dreams. I just sing part of my favorite songs and just sleep.

*

Heart: Wait, you sing to yourself in bed, I didn’t know that. 
MS: Yeah, sometimes, I do.

*

Heart: When I tuck you in, I’ll have to stay back until I hear you sing. 
MS: No, no, I don’t start singing right away. I go to sleep, then sing when I get up a little bit and then go back to sleep. I only sing when I’ve problems sleeping.

*

Heart: Aww. What do you think about your mom’s interview style? 
MS: It’s weird, because you just keep asking around people for interviews, and its really weird. I mean, if you want to know people’s Social Security number, its not my problem. You can’t interview everyone in the world, you just have to interview people who’ve some interesting things about them.

*

Heart: Wait a minute, I don’t ask for their Social Security number and every one lives an interesting life, how would you know if you didn’t ask them about it? Anyway, you’re a funny person to interview. Do you know what humor is? 
MS: I’ve no clue what humor is.

*

Heart: It means something that makes you laugh. 
MS: Oh, seriously? Good sense of humor, that’s what they say. Yeah, I get it. OK, OK. Now, I know what humor is.

*

Heart: What’re your plans when you’re able to live independently? 
MS: Like when I’m college?

*

Heart: Yeah. 
MS: Um, eating spam and watching TV every night.

*

Heart: Spam? 
MS: You don’t know what spam is? Get outta here, mom. Really cheap dish that people in college eat, because its cheap. And easy to buy. I’ll have Netflix and eat noodles maybe, you know. Or maybe I’ll study.

*

Heart: Thank you. That would’ve been the right answer.  
MS: (Laughs)

*

Heart: What do you think of teachers? 
MS: OK. Sometimes, teachers can break your heart. At art, you draw something that you think is really cool and your friends think its really cool and you show it to your art teacher and she’s like, “I hate that.” and she’ll yell a trillion things wrong about it. And you’ll feel really sad about it.

And some teachers are like, “I don’t care what this guy thinks, I’m just gonna do whatever I want.” They’re just lazy and what they’ll do is that they just read and they give you these worksheets for some homework, and then ask you to put it into your folder and for the rest of the day, you’re just doing something on your own. That’s a really lazy teacher.

Other teachers are like weird and have the voice of Batman or Hello Kitty. And its weird and they just tell everyone everything about their life and doesn’t teach you anything.

But, some teachers are really amazing. They care about you, they’re like, “Oh no, this guy’s not learning well.” and makes you learn in a really fun way. Shows you videos and like favorite Magic school bus stuff and shows you hand puppets and really cool stuff to make you learn and they make it exciting to learn. So, yeah.

*

Heart: Great answer, thanks. So, do you think its important to do your best in any profession? 
MS: What’s a profession?

*

Heart: A job. If you do a job, should you be good at it? 
MS: OK. That’s the worst question ever. Coz, what if you love to sing but you hate to draw, but you became an artist and you still hate to draw, then that’ll be really stupid, because everyday when you wake up, then when its time to go to work, you’ll be like, “Man, I’ve to be an artist again. Arrrrrgh.” I think you should’ve a job you really like and a career that you should really like. You should be good at it or else you’re fired.

*

Heart: Wow, you’re right. You should enjoy what you do. And only then, you’ll be good at it, right?  
MS: Did you know that hot water freezes faster than cold water?

*

The Anonymous Manifesto is where strangers tell their stories anonymously. We’re all fabulous in our own little ways, aren’t we? And since our world is getting pretty condensed, this social experiment might expand our combined horizons.

*

Why Anonymous Manifesto?

Wait, I am confused. Why interview people?

Fair question. To find out how everyone else is able to live this unlivable life. And most importantly, to get back to having conversations with our fellow earth dwellers while prodding each other with deep questions.

What’s the point? 

These interviews might show us that we are all people who are exciting, heartbroken, crazy, lonely, and thriving in some way and the same way. These interviews might inform, entertain, compel, touch, impact and inspire.

What’s a manifesto?

A public declaration of personal lessons, dreams, aspirations, opinions and goals.

Why anonymous?

These people are like you and me, common folks. Moreover, why wait in line to snag celebrity interviews? Eh?

Disclaimer:

This is not an opinionated survey of the human survival landscape. It’s a snapshot of their life in the now. To each his own.

Can I sign up to be interviewed?

Have a pulse? Sure, then email us at: info@futurestrong.org.

* * *

The Anonymous Manifesto

Questions, just ask!

Text or Call: 678.310.5025 | Email: info@futurestrongacademy.com

Bringing a Group? Email us for a special price!