Amazing women don’t get to be amazing by sitting on their duff thinking about the great things they “could” do. We admire them because they went out and defied the odds, doing things people said they couldn’t or shouldn’t do. Amelia Earhart was not the kind of woman who sat around thinking about exciting things to do. She went out and did them even though the societal conventions of her time discouraged her from doing them.
Earhart has been in a lot of movies lately, including “Night at the Museum 2” and the 2009 film, “Amelia” starring Hilary Swank. A historical feminine icon of epic proportions, Earhart did incredible things in her time that most other women would have only dreamed of doing in the quiet confines of their own sewing room.
Born in 1898, Earhart was what you might call a tomboy. She enjoyed adventuring, climbing trees, collecting and inspecting bugs and frogs and was even known to wear pants while playing outdoors–an unheard of practice for girls of that time. She also spent her days and nights dreaming of her future, collecting scrapbook pages filled with newspaper articles about amazing women who inspired her. Unfortunately, her aspirations and her differences made her something of a loner, but along time only encouraged her to dream even greater things.
Earhart was a Red Cross hospital volunteer during World War I in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, she contracted pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis and became a patient herself. There were not antibiotics to treat such conditions at that time, and her only solution was surgery to help drain her sinuses. The condition would affect her for the rest of her life, often resulting in debilitating headaches and sinus problems.
In 1919 and 1920, repeated visits to airfields spurred her growing fascination with flying. In 1920, she took her first ride in an airplane, and withing minutes of climbing into the air, she knew what she had to do. She took on a number of odd jobs after that to save up the $1000 needed to take flying lessons. She took lessons from Anita Snook, a pioneer female aviator, and within six months she had her own plane and was breaking world records.
On the other hand, despite her being a good pilot, she often took risks that more experienced pilots chastised her for, calling her foolish and inexperienced. She took their criticism to heart, and by 1927, had accumulated over 500 hours of solo flight time. She also began to write a local newspaper column about flying, and became something of a local celebrity.
In 1932, when she was 34, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, an achievement that earned her worldwide fame and respect. She continued breaking ground, flying solo to places people didn’t believe she could fly. She broke and set a number of women’s records during this time, and then in 1937 she attempted her first solo world wide flight. She failed, but failure only pushed her to try harder, and a second attempt was made.
It was on this infamous second attempt that Earhart disappeared. A $4 million dollar oceanic search was launched, but no trace of her was ever found.
Despite the fact that many of us know Earhart as the woman who mysteriously disappeared, she was a pioneer who motivated women all over the world. To this day, she is still an inspiration. A woman who defied the odds, followed her dreams into the sky, and died doing the one thing that made her feel alive.
The next time you find yourself thinking your dreams are impossible to achieve, think about Amelia Earhart, who raged in the face of impossibility, and said yes to her dreams.
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