At the Movies
A “Hidden” gem
I watched a movie called “Hidden Figures” with my friends on Family Day. I had a really good time watching it since it was very emotional. One of my friends fell asleep. It was one hell of an ending she missed though.
Hidden Figures is about 3 African-American women who work at NASA. The 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik changed history — and Katherine Johnson’s life. Katherine played her part when it came to calculating on when and where to land the spacecraft exactly. Her calculations were beyond precise and she was the smartest among all the men in her department. Now that is pretty incredible to me.
Another very important department at NASA is the engineering department. Without them, they wouldn’t have made it into space! Mary Jackson was part of that department. An engineering opportunity had sprung. She knew that she could do it. Only one thing was stopping her and it required her to take one class at an all white high school. Determined to become the first black female engineer at NASA, she goes to court and fights her way to complete the classes at the school. Her character will always stick with me. Fight for what you want and you shall receive greatness.
Dorothy Vaughn was an incredible mathematician. Dorothy joined NASA at the height of World War II thinking that it was only a temporary war job, but little did she know she helped send a man into outer space. She taught herself how to read FORTRAN, an old computer language. Dorothy had stolen a book on how to read the language and taught herself how to use the IBM machine, a machine that could calculate hundreds of multiplication questions per second. A group of young African-American girls had been doing the calculations by hand for the company. Seeing that machine computers were the future, she knew that herself and the other women would no longer be needed. She prepared the women for the transition.
The best part about this film was seeing that this was based on real events. This actually happened. These women’s stories will always remind me to always have hope. These women fought for what they wanted. They all had a goal and achieved it. It takes courage to fight for what they deserved. Never doubt anyone. The employees at NASA thought that a woman would not be able to handle the job, but in reality, they did their job better than those employees did. Excellence CAN be reached no matter what. You just have to do your part and maybe you’ll be able to send a man to the moon too.
— Emily Y
