Reflecting on the Experience of Becoming the Tallest Man in Space: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Wonder

You became the tallest man to go to space on Jeff Bezos experiment. What was that like? The tallest man to go to space. That ain’t hard, right? Good. A little disaster. Not. Yeah, yeah, not. They make it what we can fit, right? But before you couldn’t fit. Anyway, it was. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. Hmm. Because there were reasons for, like, just. Not even the trip itself. Things that happened before I went made it incredible. Because it makes you evaluate yourself, your life, your family, your friends, where you stand in the lives of people, where. What they mean to you, where they stand in your life, what’s important. Because you almost getting your eulogy before you even right do it. Cause people, your boys are like, yo, man, your boys, you always, you know, y’all. Y’all always up here busting each other’s, you know, balls without a word. Then your boys are like, um. Yo, man, I’m a man. Hopefully everything right. I love you, man. And you just like, damn, what that come from? Then you realize the severity of it. You have your will, but then when you gotta redo it and make sure everything is tight, not because you thinking, in 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, no, because you thinking in three, four, five, six, seven days, it might kick in. And you’re looking at your kids and you’re like, I ain’t ready to leave my kids. Right. That’s, you know, I have my mom still living, my brothers and sisters. I’m like, I’m not ready to go, like, to leave this planet. And they’re not ready for you. And you realize that the ecosystem that you have around you, the people that love about you, care. But then when you go up and you’re looking back at the planet. Damn it. Crazy to say. Yeah, like the. The back of the planet, the arc of the planet, the different layers of atmosphere. You start out like, down here is light. When you’re chilling, you looking up and it’s getting darker as you’re going. And next thing you know, I’m up in darkness. And I’m looking down at the light instead of the light, looking up at darkness. And you’re floating, you’re weightless. Push yourself around with two fingers and you just move in effortlessly throughout this cat. It was. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever, ever done, man. And I’m not a space, right? Like, I’m not. I’m not a risk person. Uh huh. I’m trying to live, right? Like, god, breathing. you can breathe. You don’t need nothing. This is an air. It’s like I’m sealed chamber. Only thing I was like, okay, if we get up there, what if that thing just starts floating off and we ain’t coming back and catch us? And then you just gotta sit up there until you starve to death or whatever it may. Be. But it was. It made me the happiest I’ve been, man, because it really. You land and your smile on your face, you can’t wipe it off, man, you know? No, not. That’s what. We can say that, right? Very few people can say that. You going up and it’s like 3G where you sitting on that capsule, and you can get off up until two and a half minutes before, you know, take off. You can say, time out, or you can go, I don’t wanna fly. Time out. They’ll come on, try to say, yo, yo, Matt, you sure you don’t wanna do this? To try to talk you into it, right? But if you go out, I don’t wanna fly today. They just gonna come yank you off. And I was waiting for somebody to possibly save us all. Were you gonna join? Were you gonna join up? He was gonna join in. Somebody does it. Oh, man. So how long does it take to get up? The whole thing is less than 12 minutes up and down. Really? Yeah. But you think about it, it feels bad. I didn’t know that. No, no, it’s fast. It felt like a day now. And in our time of 12 minutes. But you’re so in tune, like, you’re. Every sense you have is on alert. Yeah. Every creek and every movement, you just. You just so intense. It seems like hours, really. And then when you’re sitting there, And you’re watching that clock and you know, at 2:30, before countdown, I can get off. But once it’s 2:29, you’re in. You like, oh, the computer kicked in. Now I can’t stop. Then you just have to convince yourself like, yo, this is like a Disneyland ride, Disney World. Just gonna go with it and hope for the best. 12 minute running clock. Like a quarter. They got it worked out, man. That’s crazy. But then when you hear, like, 10 9, it’s like you’re in a movie. Yeah. And then when it lifts off and the thing is rumbling, you see the smoke and the inside, that capsule turns red from the fire and the flames from the engine, and that thing just starts shaking and takes off. And then they’re like, um, you know, Blue Origin, you know, New Shepherd. You cleared the tower, and you just. Everybody on the. Literally, everybody would be being unprompted, just screaming like, yeah! How many other people were in there with you? Five other people, man. And then once you’re going up, they designed the ship that is start to like a slow spiral that way I don’t have to look out the window over there to see what’s going on. You just look out your window, you see the whole. See everything world. 40,000 feet up, hundred thousand feet up, 200,000 feet up, 300,000 feet up. Face getting pushed back. It was sick. If I got it in me, Jack, y’all gotta do it. Be the tallest. I could be the tallest cause I’m short in this room, right? Crazy. 12 minutes for me. I might pass out. I know. Yeah. Would you do it? It feels free. Probably. That’s hard. Haha. I ain’t gonna lie. So you free is a good point. Right. The second we landed, I see Bezos, Jeff, and I’m like, yo, I wanna do it again. He goes, next time you gotta pay us. I ain’t doing it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right.