A little while back the Women of NASA Lego set came out. This set featured some pretty awesome ladies, Margaret Hamilton (Apollo software scientist/engineer), Mae Jemison (Astronaut, MD, all-around amazing person), Sally Ride (Astronaut), and Nancy Roman (NASA Astronomer who played a large role in the Hubble Space Telescope Program).  Nearly all the women in STEM I know got the set for the holidays. I had not. I was not jealous. (I was a little jealous). But I surely didn’t need to have this set, I didn’t need to buy it for myself, I wasn’t that excited about it. I was lying to myself.

Well a good friend of mine sent me the set recently, because she is awesome and a very nice person. When the package arrived and I figured out what was inside, I thought, I’ll have to find time to put this together… later. And before I knew it I was unboxing it.

… And before I knew it I was putting pieces together (hey Mae)…

… And then I was still putting together pieces…

…. Until the sun was setting and there was nothing left to do “later.” It made for a very dramatic “finished” photo:

Thanks Catie Royko (who is another awesome woman in STEM!) for the very thoughtful gift that made me feel like both a kid and a cool adult for an afternoon. Catie is a Nuclear Engineer for the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant and we were college roommates our freshman year! I am lucky to have both awesome role models and peers.