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Amelia Earhart

by Cindy from San Diego

Amelia Earhart says, "The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward." This quote shows precisely what kind of life style Earhart had her whole life and what kinds or types of decisions she made in her life common normal life until the moment when Amelia was in high school getting her first sight of a real plane. Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas and is most well known for her disappearance than for her accomplishments such as she was the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Amelia was a tomboy in a somewhat poor family with a drunken father. Amelia still did not know what she wanted to become until December 28, 1920 Amelia got her first ride in a plane that would change her life forever. After that first ride, Amelia wanted to be a pilot no matter what.( Reyburn, Susan) What makes a hero is the personality to be liked and an iron strong will to accomplish their goal. If you aren't liked by a couple of haters that is normal and given in life but having a personality that most people like, makes people respect you because you are just being yourself which most people don't do. Without a will you wouldn't do anything with your life but without a strong will you would never follow through with your plan or goal for your life. People look up to others that have done something that cannot possibly happen also known as the impossible, to do the impossible and make it possible you must have a will to keep on trying or else you would never reach that level. This is why for a hero a strong will is important. Amelia Earhart natural leader like behavior, strong willed personality, and her bravery that helped the pilot part of her succeeded at many record-breaking flights this is why she's a hero.

Amelia's personality calls others towards her and respects her as a leader character. Susan Reburn supports my claim that Amelia is a leader as you can see here: The flight from Honolulu was attempted with no thoughts of proving anything aeronautical," she wrote. I can only hope one more passage across that portion of the pacific succeeds in making a little more plainly the pathway over which the inevitable air service of the future will fly. It me, also, it seemed good training for other hoped-for long-distance flights..." She continued to win over her critics." (Reyburn, Susan). The word Amelia spoke when the critics asked her why she is flying is inspiring and opens your eyes that everything you do has a purpose when ever it's for the greater good of the future or because you want to have fun. These moving words that moved the critic is a good example that Amelia is a leader. Finally, it should be argued that: "Earhart reported in the fall of 1917 that "I am Vice President of the class.... Then I am secretary vote to a Red Cross chapter we are organizing.... Then I am secretary and treasurer of Christian Endeavor- no sinecure. It has been rather an institution of torture heretofore and not well liked but we are trying to... make it stand for something.... I am elected too to write the senior song, but you know the more one does, the more one can do." (Reyburn, Susan). This quote states that she is given many different positions of authority because of her popular personality and her can do attitude about things. At everything she does she thinks about that's going on and how she is acting accordingly to the situations. These qualities are what make people look up to you making you a hero. These quotes show that Amelia is a Leader. Earhart had been given many responsibilities in her life based on the way she acts and the decisions she chose for her own life. People looked up to her because of this, showing that she was respected as a leader.

 (http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-libra ())
(http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-libra ())

Amelia Earhart has a strong heart and mind for what she wants to do. The information from "Women Who Dare: Amelia Earhart" shows that Amelia has strong senses of morals and will, for example: "There she had seen something that "changed the course of existence for me." She wrote of watching four Canadian World War 1 veterans "on crutches, doing their heart-breakingly best to walk together down King Street...and it came home to me then that war wasn't knitting sweaters and selling Liberty bonds..The Canadian Red Cross took me in training and I qualified as a nurse's aid." (Reyburn, Susan). Amelia volunteered to be in the Red Cross even though it was in the middle of a war and it could have been just safe and sound at home. She herself chose to go and help, and not turn her back on the hurt. Most people like Amelia said would sell liberty bonds and make some things to "help" the solders but not her, she went all out to help them personally. It took a strong moral compass to be able to give up the comfort of home to go and help in the war this shows her moral values are strong.Amelia Earhart strong will seen when: "After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1915, Earhart attended Ogontz, a girl's finishing school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She left in the middle of her second year to work as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in Canada during WWI, attended college, and later became a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston." (Reyburn, Susan). This quote also shows that Amelia is strong because even though she was in the middle of her second year of school she just decided to leave and go become a nurse and help the soldiers personally. It was not like she didn't think education wasn't important, shown by the college she attended afterwards, it was just she decided that helping out in the war was more important than her education at the moment. It takes strong determination to help to be able to just stop in the middle of her education and not make an excuse that she needs to finish school before she could help the solders. Amelia's is strong because she was able to push for her goals and dreams even though generally, if you were thinking about your life in the future, it was not the bests of ideas. She pushed herself on because she knew it was the right thing to do and she genuinely just wanted to help the people who needed help.

Each decision Amelia makes needed great courage, also known as bravery, making her a hero. Susan claims that, "On Jan. 11-12, 1935, she became the first pilot to fly alone from Hawaii to the United States mainland, a challenge which had hitherto taken several lives." (Dictionary of American)."Only a month earlier, Charles Ulm and his crew had died in the pacific while flying from California to Hawaii. -----"(Reyburn, Susan)Even though a couple of people already died attempting this flight already just a couple months before, even though the deaths of the past pilots are still fresh in the people's minds including her she still continued the attempt at this daring act. Most people would second-guess themselves about the plan there about to do if someone else already attempted your same plan and failed. Amelia however still flew showing bravery. Earhart's Bravery is observed when: "First woman and the second person to solo the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, five years to the day after Lindbergh, she took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Paris. Strong north winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems plagued the flight and forced her to land in a pasture near Londonderry, Ireland." (The Official Website of Amelia) "Earhart thought her chances of landing safely on the other side might be one in ten" (Reyburn, Susan) There was a small chance of living for many of the flights she took but she destroyed all odds even her own and succeed blowing all expectations away. Even though she was faced with adversity during her flight, she did not just give up and pray, she fought for her life and won being able to land in a field in Ireland. It is either really brave or really stupid to go against even your own expectation but ether way works she survived in the end and made a mark on history that she was the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic. Amelia's bravery is show when she attempted many dangerous attempts that never guarantied her survival. She still attempted them fully aware the about consequences at hand if she should see failure. She followed through with her plan and in the end she successed with these two "first time" flights.

All this evidence shows that Amelia had a leader-like, strong willed personality, and her bravery to try to accomplish dangerous stunts attracted people making her a hero. Amelia kept on going for anything and everything she thought she herself wanted to do. Most of her decisions was made from what she thought was the correct thing to do, not what someone else thought was right it was what she thought was right. In addition, Amelia's determine personality made people like and rely on her making her a natural born leader. Finally, Amelia bravery helped her follow through with her stunts making her fear dissipate letting her break many records during her flights. Amelia Earhart is an inspiration because she has done so much in her life even though she did not know what she was going to be, Amelia was still amazing at everything she did. When Amelia did find the one thing she loved, she went for it with all her heart and did not waver at the thought that she might have made a mistake. Amelia stood up to everyone else that said she would not make it and proved them wrong. Earhart made pathways for girls and people everywhere. Because of her actions and easygoing personality people liked her, which is a sign of being a hero. Amelia was a strong woman fallowing through what she thought was the right thing to do and defying everything she thought was wrong, still remembering other people around her. These are the reasons why Amelia Earhart is the person I look up to, she is my hero.


Work cited


"Amelia Earhart." Explorers & Discoverers of the World. Gale, 1993. Biography In Context. Web. 7 May

10, 20132013.

"Amelia Mary Earhart." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944.

Biography In Context. Web. 9 May 2013.

Reyburn, Susan. Amelia Earhart. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2006. Print

"The Official Website of Amelia Earhart." The Official Website of Amelia Earhart. Family of Amelia

Earhart, n. d. Web. 02 May 2013.

Page created on 5/22/2013 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 5/22/2013 12:00:00 AM

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