Iowa Native Named One Of Glamour’s 2017 Women Of The Year [VIDEO]

When Peggy Whitson was growing up near what is now the tiniest town in Iowa, Beaconsville, people would've laughed at her if she had told them what her future would hold.

Whitson, 57, was named one of Glamour's Women of the Year earlier this week. No one is more deserving. She spent more than three-quarters of the last year in space. Whitson left earth on November 19, 2016, and spent 288 days in orbit before touching down in the country of Kazakhstan on September 3, 2017. The photo below was taken just minutes after she landed.

During that time, Whitson was part of the crew for Expedition 50, 51, and 52, according to Getty Images, but that's only the beginning of what she's accomplished as an astronaut. Here's all the records she's set:

• Oldest woman in orbit (57)
• Most spacewalks by female astronaut (10)
• First woman in charge of International Space Station (twice)
• First woman to be the chief of NASA's Astronaut Office
• 665 days in space (most EVER by an American astronaut)

I told you they'd have laughed at her as a kid in a little tiny spot in Iowa, but that's where the dream started. According to Glamour, she was enthralled when she saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon in 1969. Nine years later, NASA began to accept female astronauts. She would begin working at NASA in 1986 and apply to be an astronaut every single year for a decade before getting the call. It was 2002 that Whitson first went to space, spending six months on her first trip. Peggy Whitson has always gone big.

She wrote a note to her younger self on her last trip to space, finishing when she returned to earth. This video is definitely worth watching.

Congratulations, Peggy Whitson. Not just on being named one of the Women of The Year, because you clearly have a TON of things to be proud of.

[via Glamour and Getty Images]