Loving An Adventure by Birte

Loving An Adventure by Birte - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

It is inspiring to meet people who seem to find a way to make the best of any situation, strive forward, and enjoy life. This is why I would love to have dinner with Amelia Earhart.
Reading about Amelia shows that she enjoyed life despite her health issues and her pursuit of a male dominated career. She strikes me as a person who would envision a goal and reach it, if somehow humanly possible. Amelia seems to have had a sense of adventure with an openness to the world that enabled others to follow in her footsteps.
Spending time with her would be very exciting. As a child she loved to climb trees, collect bugs and wore clothes that allowed her to move, despite the disapproval of some people.
Many of Amelia's hobbies remind me of myself and my desire for adventures. As a matter of fact, my parents wished more and more as I grew older not to know what I was doing until after I returned happy and healthy from whatever experience I embarked upon. Granted my adventures seem rather harmless in contrast to Amelia who crossed the Atlantic on her own!
I would roam the neighborhood with mostly boys when I was young because I preferred to play pirates, using a big birch tree as a ship, than play with dolls. As I aged, I tried a variety of sports but ended up falling in love with Judo. That love came to a sudden stop only after I fractured my neck.
I have bungee jumped and free climbed very high cliffs. I have repelled from those same cliffs as well as dilapidated and shaky training towers in Germany. I didn't even hesitate to move to America after marrying my husband of now nineteen years, when I was twenty.
Dinner with Mrs. Earhart would reveal a shared love of trying new things and broadening horizons. The various new jobs or hobbies I have tried always seem to have two aspects in common: they keep me active and, more often than not, lead me into some form of teaching position where I get to inspire others to become better at what they do, allowing them to enjoy life just a little bit more.
Amelia helped other women by opening minds, setting an example by going to university and also by becoming a pilot. She made women aware that there are choices for them. Amelia traveled the world talking to leaders and working as a nurse. Amelia was knowledgeable in so many fields that I can not imagine a more interesting dinner guest.