Nguyen 1 Liza Nguyen Ms.

Wu English H, Period 2 November 3, 2009 Amelia Earhart: Flight to Freedom Courage is the price life exacts for granting peace. As I lay here in bed, reminiscing, I wonder if I really meant what I written back then. Life was very limited for women when I lived, and I yearned to break free of those stereotypes that everyone had come to believe were truth. Though mine has not been the happiest of lives, I feel a great surge of pride in declaring that I am Amelia Earhart, a woman that has fought persistently in order to achieve her dreams. As I close my eyes, I felt myself wandering back through the good days, where freedom was such a struggle and happiness was hard earned. My family, like all other families, was never without family issues. The main source of our anguish was my father; he was a railroad claims agent, which only brought in for us a meager income. Regardless of this, I had accepted him as my father and had a heart full of love for him. However, a part of himself had already given up, and he was an addict to liquor and gambling. These chronic actions grew steadily worse and eventually lost Edwin his job and led him into a dead end. With no money and no opportunities, my desolate father chose to run, and abandoned his family, which left an emotional scar on everyone in the family. I was only 3 when this happened, but the memory of his deadened eyes and the cruel set of his mouth as he walked out of the door still haunt me in my most wicked nightmares. Only my mother and I knew the nauseating truth, while my little sister Muriel always thought he went on a business trip. After he realized that he could

Nguyen 2 not even support himself with his horrible habits, he returned, and after a few years of struggling to make a family that had been broken apart work in harmony, my mother, Amy Otis, divorced him. This shattered my family life, and I felt as if the divorce was a dark abyss that separated me from my loved ones. Chary of others, I focused on a life where I could be free, and sought to find a place where I could be truly happy. Since I did not want to burden my family and relatives, I avowed that I would pay for my own education, and sought to earn a scholarship to MIT for a degree in aeronautical engineering. However, despite my diligent effort, I was turned down, and after a few years working aimless jobs, hope was running out for me. I was on the verge of despair, something I had sworn to myself that I would never feel again in my life. When I had begun my educational life, it felt as though my dream was ripe and ready for the taking. However, now I felt as though I had walked and ran and stumbled on this path and discovered that my dream was exactly as it was: a dream, impossible to turn into reality. Finally, I would make one last attempt with what little confidence I had left, through the Womens Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU). I never dreamed that this action would be the turning point in my life. In August, after I approached the WEIU, I earned a degree in social work, and was dutifully working thought I never forgot my dream of flying through the skies. When California became aviation-obsessed, the whole country caught fire, and I saw the opportunity that I had craved for. My whole life, I had never really found a passion that beckoned and called to me as strongly as aviation did, and I hastened to follow my urges. I saved up enough money for lessons on aviation, and my first true flight was on June 1718, in 1928 and even though I was only a passenger, it felt as though I was a million

Nguyen 3 times closer to reaching my goal. The whole country seemed wildly excited about this, and I was turned into an instant celebrity. It was not enough for me. I wanted to keep on flying through the skies, forever, on and on until time itself ceased. It was because of this infatuation that I became my own pilot, and made many record flights, from Hawaii to California, Mexico to Newark, and even re-experienced my first flight across the Atlantic as the first solo woman instead of a passenger. I yearned to fly and my eagerness for the elation I felt spurred me on and on, and as I became more confident, I decided to attempt my most famous and last flight: flying around the world. I planned this flight carefully, and I wanted to make many stops and discover the world unknown to me. The trip was scheduled for June 1st, 1937; I would start out in Miami and after countless stops to refuel (and hopefully explore), I would land back in California. As I approached the plane I would be piloting, I felt a sense of thrill surge through me, for this was my dream! The greatest wish I could possibly wish for was here, coaxing me to take the challenge, and take it I did. I opened my eyes, and as I looked up upon the blank white ceiling above my head, a faint smile crept up onto my lips. From what I have heard from the news, I had sent the last transmission somewhere close to Howland Island, and that the president himself spent over 4 million dollars on attempting to find me, but by July 18, all hope for me seemed to be lost. Though I was deemed a mystery to the world, my sense of satisfaction for chasing after my desires as well as being an inspiration for others to reach for their ambitions has not lessened one bit. I closed my eyes once more, and the words that I had written so strongly so very long ago drifted back towards meeach time we make a choice, we pay with courage [and decide if it is fair]. As I toy with these words, I

Nguyen 4 know that if I could go back to that moment, when the temptation of the flight enticed me, that my choice would forever and always be the same. Though I have struggled, through much pain, despair, and anguish, I would still deem my flight towards freedom a great success.