Katherine Johnson by Camila S.

Notice the people you look up to and you will see that they have grit because of their early years full of conflicts. Katherine Johnson was very smart. She was incredibly good at math. She loved to count things. She helped land the first man on the moon with her math work. Katherine Johnson overcame adversity, she helped in mathematics, and she was also called a human computer because of how good she was in math.

To begin with, according to NASA’s website, she had a remarkably long life. Katherine was also an African American woman. In her time, she also had people judge her because of her skin color. On NASA’s website it says that when she graduated with the highest honors in 1937, she took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia. Even with her remarkable and long life she did a lot and helped a lot to get where she wanted, and she pushed herself to success. She started working really young despite being discriminated against for being a woman of color. 

Additionally, back then women were not respected. Katherine was also judged by her gender. People did not believe that she could do hard things, so she proved them wrong. For example, In the Katherine Johnson CommonLit passage I found that back then women were not respected. NASA did not want any women working for them until they saw how smart Katherine was. After that she helped with the math work at NASA.  Even when she had a tough time, she always found her way to keep trying harder and harder. People confused her for the cleaning lady at one point. They just couldn’t believe a woman worked among them. 

Lastly, Katherine did not have that much recognition until later. Where she worked people thought she was not good at anything. That was until they say that she was good at math. She loved to count. Because of how good she was with math people called her a human computer. After they saw she was good she started working at NASA for a long time. Katherine Johnson was an African-American mathematician who worked for NASA from 1953 until 1986. I also found this from the Katherine Johnson passage. Even though people did not believe in her at the beginning, she kept on trying and working hard so she could prove things to those people who did not believe in her worth.

To end these thoughts, you have seen that most of the people you admire have grit, and Katherine Johnson was one of these people. When she was younger her life was very hard. Back then women were not respected and there was racial discrimination. She did not have recognition when she started work until much later in life. Even with all that had happened to her, she still kept going.