I have the 5 names. Don't look at them now, that's cheating (too late, I know). I don't actually know the details of their lives, for most of them. Most probably I wouldn't even have "loved being" them at all, strictly speaking. But those persons have made something truly amazing, so I thought they deserved to be here. After that preamble, let's start!
The first one was the really easy, obvious one to me. Neil Armstrong is my number 1. Neil, if you happen to read my blog: I love you!!! (and with very days in advance, let me wish you a very happy 78th birthday) The Moon. That guy landed there almost 40 years ago, I can hardly believe it. "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." As simple as that. It's not such small a step, Neil, you're too modest. Of course I adore the other 11 guys who walked up there (and more generally all those who went into space). But come on, Armstrong was THE one. The first one. Imagine a second what that must be. Well, I stop on Neil. Congrats, and thanks. Just one regret: I wasn't born back in 1969. Be sure I wouldn't have slept much on a mid-summer night of July.
The others were much more difficult to find. For each of them, I could have quoted many who achieved similar accomplishments. But let's stop being too serious about that short list, it's not more honorific than... being cited in my blog, not the biggest Hall of Fame ever. And as you've seen already (you cheaters!), they're all dead.
In the series "First to be", I think I would have appreciated to be Christopher Colombus. After all, there's a strong similarity with man landing on the Moon. And when you think about it, that's funny to realize that Colombus was not that far away from Cape Canaveral when he discovered America! Of course some could think it's pretty controversial to put Columbus as one of the greats, because of what followed his discovery of America. But that's not my point: he traveled, he wanted to discover new territories and, well, I think he managed.
I certainly would have been really, really happy also to be first one to conquer the Everest. I've already told you all the admiration I have for Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing in that post. Two great men but let me count them as once in that Top 5. Well done guys. Let's continue my shopping list.
Because of my job, I have to choose a scientist. Only problem: which one? Impossible to answer. I hesitated between so many people - can you believe how I take my blog seriously ?! - but that's the game, so let me drop with rather no surprise this name: Albert Einstein. Why him? Oh I don't know. There's not only physics in science, and I was tempted for quite some time to put Charles Darwin. Poor Charles, yet he would have deserved it these days... Even in the small world of physics, I'm probably biased here, I have so many names which come to my mind! What about Isaac Newton, of course, or that young lady in a man's world, the twice Nobel Prize winner Marie Skłodowska Curie? But lets' face it, Einstein is such a symbol! No need to elaborate more on this: Albert, you're in, welcome aboard.
The last one is the probably the least famous of the list: Jesse Owens, the black American sprinter who won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, which triggered the rage of Hitler who furiously left the stadium and refused to shake hands with Owens. I'm fascinated by sports(wo)men, probably because I'm myself not too sporty. And of all the sports, athletics is perhaps the simplest and the most beautiful. I was then left with two men, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis. I watched the 1984 Olympics in LA (was in the US that summer), I remember Seoul 1988 and his second rank behind Ben Johnson, later disqualified for doping. And Barcelona, Atlanta. He's of course the greatest of all time, but nothing can be compared with Owens' historical race.
That's it Roxane, I've made my choice. Here's my big Five. I'm surprised there are no politics (Martin Luther King, Gandhi,...), nor writers and artists, and I'm disappointed there are no women. But I definitely would have loved to be one of those people.
And way, way above all, Neil Armstrong.
