Science & Tech Quote by Sally Ride

Ride’s line lands with the quiet force of someone refusing to perform surprise at her own competence. “Always” does a lot of work: it frames science not as a late-blooming pivot but as a sustained appetite, a stable identity that predates the headlines. The second clause is the needle. She doesn’t say science was “nobler” than tennis or “more important.” She says “better long-term career,” a cool, practical metric that sidesteps the sentimental narratives often imposed on trailblazing women - inspiration, sacrifice, destiny - and replaces them with the language of planning.

The subtext is partly about risk. Tennis is glamorous but volatile; a body can betray you, a ranking can collapse, an industry can chew you up young. Science, as Ride presents it, is a durable infrastructure: skills compound, credibility accrues, age can be an asset. That’s not naïve idealism about academia; it’s a career-minded argument for building something that lasts.

Context sharpens the point. Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, in a culture that routinely treated women in STEM as anomalies to be explained. Her phrasing refuses the “exception” framing. She makes the choice legible in everyday terms, the way a parent might advise a kid with talent: choose the path that won’t evaporate when the spotlight moves.

There’s also a subtle rebuke to how society sorts female ambition. Tennis is an “acceptable” arena for women’s excellence because it reads as entertainment. Ride insists that the serious game - science - is where her future belongs.