Emily Calandrelli Instagram – The option to dream is not an option for all. Here’s to the parents who make their kid’s dreams possible ✨ People often ask how I got into STEM. Did I go to space camp as a kid? Did I see a rocket launch with my parents? Did I take apart radios with my mom? No, I did none of those things. I was incredibly practical. I googled all the majors one could major in and I looked at their starting salaries. I wanted to do for my family what my dad had done for his. Reach higher so that money would not be a worry. A few years ago I told this to a group of students at a fancy private high school and one of the kids asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks: What would you have wanted to be if you didn’t have to worry about money? He was referring to a safety net. That thing you can fall back on when your first couple of dreams don’t pan out. It was so foreign to me. I didn’t come from trust funds and safety nets. I had one shot and I needed to make it count. I just got lucky because I ended up falling in love with STEM! With the adventure! With the discovery! With the constant curiosity of it all! And now I work to get your kids and your family excited about it too 🚀☺️ Like Harry Potter, but real! But that question sits with me. What would any of us choose to dream if you didn’t have to worry about money? Today I’m extremely privileged to have the capacity to dream big bold dreams. And my kids will too. But it’s because of him and my mom and all the work they put in to support our family. May we all eventually have the capacity to Reach for the Stars ✨