The Dorothy Effect - Ordinary Protagonists Facing Extraordinary Worlds

I have a confession: I'm not really interested in aliens who eat sulfur while solving differential equations for the sole purpose of "becoming one with math."  I like math, but not enough for that.  Now, if you give me a snot-nosed little twerp who tells his older brother to turn off those Saturday morning cartoons because he's studying calculus to become an astronaut, on the other hand, I'd be willing to follow that story.  I'm not convinced that he'll become an astronaut, but I don't need to be - what I really want to know is whether or not I have a chance of becoming an astronaut - and that little twerp will help me understand my own chances with NASA.  And if it just so happens that NASA is currently short on manpower because of the ongoing war with the aliens from Centauri Prime...well, I still want to know what cartoons are on.  It is, after all, Saturday morning.