Earhart reflects on the possibility that looking forward to an event can sometimes be more absorbing than the event itself. In describing the months spent preparing for her journey, she recognises that anticipation has its own value. Research, planning and imagining what lies ahead can create sustained interest before the outcome is known.

The remark also separates the worth of preparation from eventual success or failure. Earhart does not claim that planning matters more than the journey, but she notes that the experience had already been significant before the flight was completed. This gives the passage a broader application beyond aviation: major undertakings often contain several stages of experience, and their meaning need not depend entirely on the final result. The quote therefore draws attention to expectation, preparation and the possibility that part of the satisfaction of a goal lies in the process of working towards it.

Full quotation

“Anticipation, I suppose, sometimes exceeds realization. Whatever the final outcome of the trip itself, certainly there was extraordinary interest in the months of planning for it.”