Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope

by Amanda Nguyen

“Did we win?” “We did.” I smile gently at her. Deep breath. “But it cost everything,” I admit. “Our youth, our relationships, our dreams.” “Was it worth it?” she asks. A pause. A bracing wind blows. Gentle rain has started to fall. “Yes. Every second of it. A life worth living is one that is free.”

This is the story of how I penned my own civil rights into existence. This is the story of how I beat time.

Before I became known for the worst day of my life, I was a student,

In America’s criminal justice system, survivors become background characters to a story that is actually about us—our lives, our bodies, our dignity.

I am being forced to make a choice: career versus justice.

this twentysomething Asian girl who looks nothing like what “powerful” usually looks like.

It is over. There’s no need to fight anymore.

In 2023, I became an astronaut with Blue Origin. When I fly, I’ll become the first Vietnamese woman and the first Southeast Asian woman to break the Kármán line.