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It did not trouble her. First, she also had other things to do: Raise her three daughters, cook, sew their clothes, care for her sick first husband. Second, she knew in her own mind how good she was—as good as anybody. She could hardly be unaware of it, when she had graduated from high school at 14 and college at 18, expert at all the maths anyone knew how to teach her.
這沒有困擾凱瑟琳。首先，她也有其他的事情要做：撫養她的三個女兒，做飯，縫衣服，照顧她生病的第一個丈夫。第二，她在心里知道自己有多好——和別人一樣好。她14歲高中畢業，18歲大學畢業，精通所有知道如何教她的人教的數學，她不可能沒有意識到這一點。
But she typically credited the help of other people, especially her father, the smartest man she knew, a farmer and a logger, who could look at any tree and tell how many board-feet he could get out of it; and who had sold the farm and moved the family so that she and her siblings could all get a fine schooling and go to college. And last, at NASA, she had not worked alone. She had been one of around a dozen black women mathematicians who were equally unknown.
但她通常會感謝其他人的幫助，尤其是她的父親，她認識的最聰明的人，他是一個農夫和一個伐木工，看到任何一棵樹，他都說出能用它做出多少板尺；他賣掉了農場，舉家搬遷，好讓她和她的兄弟姐妹都能接受良好的教育，上大學。最后，在美國宇航局，凱瑟琳并不是一個人在工作。她是十幾個同樣默默無聞的黑人女數學家之一。
But when their story emerged in the 21st century, most notably in a book and a film called "hidden figures", she had a NASA building named after her, a shower of honorary doctorates and—the greatest thrill—a kiss from Barack Obama as he presented her, at 96, with the presidential medal of freedom. This attention was all the more surprising because, for her, the work had been its own reward. She just did her job, enjoying every minute.
但當他們的故事在21世紀出現后，最引人注目的是一本名為《隱藏人物》的書和一部同名電影，一座美國宇航局大樓以她的名字命名，她還獲得了許多榮譽博士，最激動人心的是，奧巴馬在為96歲的她頒發總統自由勛章時給了她一個吻。獲得這種關注更加令她驚訝，因為對她來說，這項工作本身就是一種獎勵。凱瑟琳只是做她的工作，享受每一分鐘。
The struggles of being both black and a woman were shrugged away. Do your best, she always said. Love what you do. Be constantly curious. And learn that it is not dumb to ask a question; it is dumb not to ask it. Not least, because it might lead to the small but significant victory of making a self-proclaimed superior realise he can make a mistake.
作為一個黑人和一個女人的掙扎則被拋在了腦后。她總是說，竭盡所能。熱愛你所做的事情。保持好奇。要知道，提出一個問題并不愚蠢；不去問它才是愚蠢的。尤其重要的是，這可能會取得一場雖小但意義重大的勝利：讓一位自詡為上級的人意識到自己可能會犯錯。
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