Hiranya Peiris

I no longer could pilot the space shuttle.

I really want to go to space.

I almost signed up for the Mars One to a one way trip to Mars.

But my partner said he wouldn't come.

So I had to nix that idea.

But then later I found out it was a scam anyway.

That's right.

I accompanied my mother to a course learning how to program in BASIC.

It was a simple computer language, but you could do quite a lot with it.

And for several weeks, I sat there coding a tour of the solar system.

And I stored my programs on a five and a quarter inch floppy disk, if some people listening still remember those.

And one day I came to class and found that the disk had been wiped.

I still feel this devastating sense of loss.

And ever since I've done like a zillion backups of everything I've worked on.

You won't make that mistake again.

Yeah, no, no, no.

You know, there was violence in everyday life.

The universities were closed and my parents just didn't see any future for us there.

And they decided to leave everything behind.

So we arrived with very little.