A mindless scroll through my feed led me to the most remarkable image this weekend: A silhouette of a woman and her braided hair cast by the light of our earth. While this photo may pass as a fascinating shot of the globe, the human subject of the photo is what moved me: a woman. 

Living in a progressive area during a progressive era, I am lucky to go through life as if women and men are equals with identical opportunities. Yet in reality, there still exists a whole world where girls are taught they may not have an education and are boiled down to their purpose as reproductive vessels. Yet four humans took a lap around the moon this past week, and a woman was up there watching the Earth along with the other astronauts who have had the privilege of pursuing a mission. 

Christina Koch, the NASA astronaut I describe, did not get here by bypassing any checkpoint or by any favor of another. She’s disclosed in interviews that she’s very familiar with being the only woman in the room, given her background in electrical engineering and space science. By her participation in such high-profile missions, she is showing the young girls and boys of the entire world that there is no limit to what the can accomplish, or the distances they can venture.