When I was in the third grade, my class was given the project of creating a wax museum. We were to dress up as someone famous, becoming “wax models” and giving a speech on the person we had chosen. Through this experience, I discovered my primary role model and inspiration–Amelia Earhart.
Earhart is most famous for being the first passenger in a plane across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928 and as the first solo female pilot in 1932. Sadly, she and Fred Noonan, her navigator, disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on a journey to navigate the world, seeking a new record.
Her inspiration has brought meaning and guidance throughout my life. She dared to go against the grain, taking the heat until she followed through with her dreams.
Earhart (Amelia, in my mind) taught me my core value of courage. To survive and become who I want to be, it requires dancing with my fear and heading face forward into the storm.
While reading the material on her life when I was eight, I was given new access to what I could really be: daring, bold, risky, and ambitious. Amelia became my hero and aspiration. She was genuine and honest, while also kind and compassionate.
She presented the image of my internal archetype/role in society as a world changer, boundary shaker, and trendsetter. Amelia illustrated the leader I wanted to become.
What might not be known is her testing of the social environment that prescribed what it meant to be a woman and her journey towards pushing for women’s rights. Women of the early 1900s did not have access or support for becoming a pilot.
Amelia had to single-handedly fight for her right to fly. She failed tremendously before becoming famous. She dealt with a society that typically opposed a woman’s success in any field.
I think of this by connecting it to the “effort paradox.” The effort paradox describes how a person must do hard work on a task before it can appear easy.
On the outside, the successful person’s work looks like they didn’t “earn it.” But, behind the scenes, for years on end and despite rejection, a person is willing to keep trying and doing whatever it takes to achieve their goal.
What the onlooker does not see is hours of preparation, building the systems that do not exist, and nurturing the confidence to regulate yourself emotionally.
Once she made it, Amelia held steady the ladder behind her, creating the “Ninety-Nines” organization, supporting other female pilots. She is known for such quotes as, “Courage is the price life exacts for peace,” and “The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.”
Amelia knew what she wanted and went after it. This is a trait many women are rarely shown. I was not necessarily taught to go after my dreams, none of which includes a family or spouse.
I was thinking about adventure and changing the world in third grade. Amelia gave me permission to believe in it.
I share my role model story because people in the neurodivergent community do not often have images they know to look for in society. If we can find one, it’s often from a storybook.
I experience and see neurodivergent individuals holding themselves to neurotypical expectations. We think we shouldn’t struggle with executive functioning or relationships when in reality, neurotypicals also struggle with the same things.
We live in a society where the “third place” has been taken away. People tend to have two central locations: home and work.
Since work is not necessarily meant for longer-term supportive relationships, it can be challenging to find a community to be a part of. Representation of ADHD, people on the spectrum and with other different ways of functioning deserve to see someone like them.
While Amelia Earhart is an extreme example, she brought me hope. I learned to have hope in connecting with the misfits who don’t necessarily fit into any particular box. Since then, my friends have never been a stereotypical person.
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A current Master of Divinity student at Campbell University Divinity School.
