Happy National Aviation Day. There is not much information about this day even on Wikipedia. Less than two full paragraphs, which is dismal considering the advances that have been made in aviation.We will be traveling to the moon on vacation, soon! President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed it a holiday in 1939 for Orville Wright’s birthday. I wanted to know more and happened across an interesting article about Bessie Coleman.
She was the first African American woman pilot! Can we say fierce!?! I always wanted to be a pilot even considered joining the Air Force at one point. But let us be honest some people just are not cut out for it. I can barely walk up a flight of stairs without huffing as if I just ran a marathon. Along with strict regiment that comes along with the training.
I found myself reading article after article about Bessie, her childhood, her life, her tragic death! All of it was just sitting there waiting to be read. The information I did find was repetitive and offered little real information. And as I continued to search and try to find something unique; there is none because of how young she died, at the age of 34. Her career was just starting!
Being one year older than her I realize my life is just beginning. I am just NOW blazing a trail for my future. If something were to happen to me, what would be written? That I did not find my passion until I was 30 and then was in graduate school for 4 years while dealing with all that life continued to throw at me. But her life was significant!
Imagine what she would have been able to do with 30 more years!?! She would have been able to open her flight school she wanted to open. She may have even been a part of the Civil Rights Movement which could have made an even bigger difference. [FYI – Civil Rights Movement started in the 40s, Bessie would have been in her late 40s, early 50s].
For the time period that Bessie lived in it is very impressive to see what she was able to accomplish. The first is that she was an African American and the second was that she was a woman. I can only imagine the trials and tribulations that she went through during her life span.
Happy Aviation Day and I hope you learned something new. I am grateful to know yet another piece of history and share with you.
~Life is an Adventure~
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