You Can Do Anything You Decide to Do (even if you're a late bloomer)

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity . . . You can do anything you decide to do . . ." -- Amelia Earhart

I recently watched the film Amelia. I like films based on actual people and events. This one was a keeper, in my opinion. Amelia was an amazing woman. She was a gentle person with a great amount of courage and strength.

Her first experience with an airplane was when she was ten. She said that the plane was "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not all that interesting."

Her first ride in an airplane occurred when she was about 23 years old. She knew at that point she had to fly. She took her first flying lesson the following January. She owned her first plane within six months.



Although when she first started flying, she did a lot of crashing, she never gave up.

"...decide...whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying...." -- Amelia Earhart

There were also many people that said she wasn't a very good flyer, but that didn't seem to faze her. She wanted to fly.



". . . it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it." -- Amelia Earhart

She was influential in starting the trend of women wearing trousers. She started organizations for women who wanted to fly. She encouraged women to do whatever it was they wanted to do.

She wasn't exactly a late bloomer, like me, but she didn't know from the time that she was small that flying would be her passion. She was almost 40 when she left on her flight around the world.



I am truly a late bloomer. Always have been, always will be I imagine. But, guess what? I'm not alone. Grandma Moses began painting when she was in her 70's. Julia Child's cookbook wasn't published until she was 49. Laura Ingalls Wilder's first book wasn't published until she was 65. And my first novel was finally finished when I was in my 40's. (If you think I'm telling you my real age, you've got another thing coming.)

If all of these women can do it, so can I. Thanks, Amelia, for your tenacity and perseverance, for your passion and drive and for being the catalyst for teaching me that being a late bloomer is okay.