Information

Avah
Legacy Name: Avah

The Galactic Kanis
Owner: Cheyanne

Age: 14 years, 3 months, 5 days

Born: January 27th, 2010

Adopted: 13 years, 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Adopted: October 10th, 2010

Statistics

• Level: 176
   
• Strength: 440
   
• Defense: 440
   
• Speed: 439
   
• Health: 439
   
• HP: 439/439
   
• Intelligence: 2
   
• Books Read: 1
• Food Eaten: 0
• Job: Unemployed

When I was a little girl, my father and I would always watch the stars. We used to lie out on a quilt, and he would teach me the different constellations, or about the phases of the moon, or anything else that I begged of him that particular night. I was our tradition, and even as I got older we would still take time to look up into the heavens and just talk.Dad was the first person I told about my dream, although I’m sure he knew long before I ever said anything. I was about twelve, and we were sitting on our old quilt. He had been telling me about the first lunar landing, and when he had finished, I remember looking at him and saying, “I want to go into space one day.”It was pretty innocuous, really, but Dad turned to me with a smile and replied, “You do that, Avah. And when you do, you can tell me all about outer space instead.” After that, we started talking about something else, some other facet of astronomy that has since blended with all of the rest of my memories, but I never forgot that exchange, or the promise I made to myself to do just what my father had requested.It was funny how a little heart defect could ruin that.I was crushed when I found out. Thanks to one small problem with my body, I would never be able to go into space. It was incredibly disheartening, but I swore that I would persevere. Even if I could not go into space myself, I would still do something with it.With my father’s blessing, I chose to major in astronomy at the college near my home. It was there that I met my boyfriend, John, during my third year. I remember when I told him my major, he was baffled. He couldn’t really understand my fascination with the stars, but he was good to me. Even though my dream was still out of reach, I was happy.Unfortunately, fate is a cruel mistress. A few months after my twenty-third birthday, my father was involved in a fatal car accident. He hung on for a few days following the wreck before he finally passed on. When I heard the news, it was as if a piece of me had been ripped out. My father had not only been my parent, but he had been my best friend. The idea that I would never again be able to call him up on the phone and discuss my studies with him, or complain about a rough day, or just stare up at the stars like we had when I was a child was completely inconceivable. I didn’t want to believe it, refused to touch the money he left me as an inheritance, but life doesn’t come with a rewind button. I had to move on.John, bless him, helped me pick up the pieces. We had moved in together a few months before my father’s death, and his constant presence helped ease the ache of my loss. However, I still felt the need to do something more, something to honor my father’s memory, and my dream felt more important than ever. Looking back on it, I don’t think John was thrilled with my new found fervor finally reaching the stars. I went almost directly from grief to single-minded focus on finding an outlet for my dream that did not directly involve boarding a space shuttle. As a result, we began to grow apart so slowly that neither of us noticed until a year and a half later when we sat down to dinner and realized we had nothing to talk about. A week later, John ended it. Though deeply upsetting, the break did not hurt as much as I thought it might. I think a part of me had known since he first scoffed at my desire to go into space that things would never work out. And besides, a turn of fortune was right around the corner.It took two years of looking,but I finally found what I had been looking for.A position at the Museum of Space History had opened up, and I was perfectly qualified to get it. The museum was half-way across the country, but I had little holding me to my home town any longer: no close family, few friends, and now no romantic interests. There was nothing to hold me in place.I asked for a few days off from my day job and flew out to New Mexico at the earliest opportunity. The entire trip, I was inundated with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. Despite being optimistic about my chances at getting the job, a part of me was afraid that things would suddenly be yanked out from beneath me again. But, the interview went well, and a few weeks later I got the call I had been waiting for.I got the job.Two weeks later, my remaining family and friends saw me off at the airport.I was nervous, incredibly so, but nothing could have stopped me from boarding that plane.I finally had a job that could allow me to touch my dream, and for that I could stand the distance between the handful of friends and family in my home town.I am currently settling in to my new home in New Mexico, and I couldn’t be happier. Maybe it wasn’t what I started out looking for, but that was okay. Getting to spend every day educating others about the stars and space travel, just as my father had done for me, is more wonderful than I ever anticipated.

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