I said no. A year later, they said it to me.
My proposal to host a NASA hackathon in Ourense was accepted, and I turned it down. A year later I applied again, and this time the no came from them.
A little over a year ago I proposed hosting a NASA Space Apps Challenge hackathon in Ourense, and they took me up on it. By the spring of 2025 I was already on video calls working through what came next.
And I said no.
I’ve spent years looking for something like this here. A Coruña and Vigo have had communities running for a while; in Ourense, in all the years I’ve been around, I’ve never seen anyone take the initiative to put the city on the map or to pull people together. This was exactly that chance, and with NASA’s name behind it.
But 2025–26 was my last year with classes, because every year I had chosen to take on more of them than I was supposed to. Between the internship, work and studying, I couldn’t see myself building it with the care I like to put into things. So I let it go.
This year I applied again. This time the no came from them.
I half expected it: I got my application in with the deadline almost closed. I don’t regret it, but it did leave me with something to think about.
What I was afraid of was not having support and not having the time to do it properly. That might well have been true. But I was never going to find out without getting into it, and now I’ll never find out at all.
To be clear, I’m not telling you to never say no. Knowing how to say no strikes me as both a duty and a virtue, and there are places where it’s still the right answer. But when what’s in front of you is an opportunity — and one you’d been wanting for years, at that — it’s a different question.
And yes, I believe in fate: I believe things get put in front of you. What isn’t down to fate is picking them up.
If you find a stone in the road, don’t sidestep it on reflex: stop and look at it. If it’s a stone, throw it away. And if it’s a diamond, take it with you and enjoy the walk.
