The Life of Amelia Earhart

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things. Knows not the vivid loneliness of fear nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings. How can life grant us boon of living, compensate for dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate, unless we dare the souls dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay with courage to behold the restless day and count it fair."

Those were the words of Amelia Earhart in a poem she wrote, entitled "Courage." Amelia Earhart knew a lot about courage. Even when faced with impossible odds, she always had the courage to try and overcome them. She had a never give up attitude that made her so attractive to the public and took the science community by surprise. Without that attitude, she would never have been invited to make her first flight across the Atlantic ocean on June 3rd 1928. Because she had the courage to be one of the only women pilots at the time, she was invited by her future husband, George Putnam, to make the 20 hour 14 minute journey across the Atlantic. Although she was just a passenger on the flight, she was still promoted to celebrity status for being the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane.

Although her fame was set with her first flight, she wanted to promote aviation in women. In 1929, she organized a cross-country air race for women pilots named "the Power Puff Derby." She also formed "the Ninety Nines" a now famous women pilots organization. In addition to forming organizations for women pilots, she occupied her four year break from flying with writing her first book, "20 hours, 40 minutes" on her first flight, became assistant to the general traffic manager of TWA and served as vice president for public relations of the New York, Washington, and Philadelphia Airways.