Dinner with a Mystery by Rachel

Dinner with a Mystery by Rachel - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

How could soup with Edgar Allen Poe be compared to tacos with Marie Curie? Does pizza with Joan of Arc outshine a steak with the Beatles? Is Chinese food better with the company of JK Rowling or Rosa Parks? There are many people I find fascinating and would love to talk about their life and work, over a lovely, hot meal. I suppose if I had to only choose one historical figure to have dinner with it would be Amelia Earhart.

I admire Amelia Earhart very much. Earhart was ambitious and adventurous in her time. She didn’t let social barriers stop her from pursuing the dream she true was passionate about. I don’t believe Amelia Earhart was fearless; she was human. But I believe she was simply not afraid to act on those fears. She didn’t let fear run her life. She once states, “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.” Earhart was the sixteenth woman to be issued a pilot’s license in a time where it was still very unusual for woman to work much less fly. Before her final flight she wrote her husband stating, “Please know I am quite aware of the hazards, I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.” She has shown any people that you can do anything you are passionate about.

To have dinner with someone who achieved so much and experience many adventures would be an honor. I would absolutely love to hear about her time growing up and how she found her passion. Not to mention, she could reveal the truth behind one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries-her death. A delightful meal, a few wild adventures stories, and the key to an unsolved murder mystery, what more could a girl ask for?