Last Sunday, I was listening to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” on NPR. Their game show guest was Leonard Nimoy. Hearing his voice rekindled a spark in me, the likes of which I haven’t felt since I was a teenager. And it gave me the courage to ask you, puleeze, sir…May I have a part in the next Star Trek?

Since I was six, I’ve been watching. By the time I was nine, I was begging my mother to let me become an astronaut, because Mr. Spock would only want to marry me if I could travel with him back to space.

I’ll do anything for my chance – walk around the big rock into an ion storm, wear the red shirt on the away team, fall prey to the giant, white one-horned gorilla – anything! Just let me boldly go where my imagination has taken me every night…