Nadia Grell

Started my life wanting to be a Catholic Cardinal
Pitch: Richard Chamberlain looked so awesome as Father/Cardinal Ralph de Bricassart in the THorn Birds (My mom and granny loved this show as i grew up)
Problem: My fault being born as a girl. I apologize

Decided that I wanted to be a nun.
Pitch: Julie Andrews in Sound of Music
Problem: When I was 14, i discovered that nuns probably do not get to play roleplaying games and drink wine (we always had wine to dinner after we were 12).

So I decided to be an astronaut, at the age of 14
My pitch: if you cant be a nun and pray and sing of heaven, why not be an astronaut and go up there instead?
Problem: NASA and other space agencies do not hire girls with chronic diseases to go to space.

So as I started last year in High School, I studied Astronomy and Cosmology
Pitch: If I cant go up to space, in person, I would live out there in my imagination and with my senses and it is cool as hell!
Problem: No RPGs for three years as I needed all A's or better. But still Working for NASA or ESA or something would be cool as hell, so no real problem. Boring but no problem.

Ended up with a double MA in Astrophysics and New Testament Exegesis (The last I blame of being nerdy as hell and wanted to read the original greek and hebrew tests to understand stellar phenomena mentioned in the bible).

Got a 12 month internship at and later was hired by ESA (European Space Agency) for a position that did not exist and was formed around me with a cool title i was allowed to come up with instead and i am to this date the only one who has held this title.

Meanwhile I painted a lot, went to art school at night and after 6 years at ESA, i took a leave of absence and became a full time artist after my father passed away as i needed a mental break.

So here I am now, making art, having a child with a dude i met in a rpg game once...and constantly long to live at other worlds or in a habitat around earth as Eric Idle sang it best:

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
'Cause it's bugger all down here on Earth

I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, would it not be much worse if life were fair and all terrible things that happens to us come because we actually deserves them?
So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.