Hero

I always found it interesting that a lot of articles written about people include who the person's hero is. As a child I never had a hero, really. Of course, I looked to my dad as a sort of hero, but I never felt the gravity of what having a hero really meant until I entered the pre-teen and teen years. When I really gave it some thought, I couldn't think of anyone that I looked to as a role model or someone I thought was cool enough to follow in their footsteps.

All of that thinking made me think of what a hero was made of. Could I possibly be a hero to someone? Did I have what it takes to be a hero? But, of course, that led me back to square one: what are the qualities of a hero, exactly?

I guess I never figured it out or I just set my "hero" standards too high because I still didn't have a hero for the longest time. Then, I was sitting in a U.S. government class that I am a teacher's aide in. Our teacher was talking about the town he grew up in and the people he grew up around, and he told how the people helped each other whenever someone needed it; it was just something you did without thinking about it.

When he described his father, he had my full attention. His father would cut a bunch of logs into firewood and leave it at the start of the road that led to his property for anyone to use if they ever needed it. This just made me respect the guy a lot. And then, while the teacher moved on, I sat there thinking about his dad, and I had this desire to be like him in the way that he helped people, without any thought given to his finacial situation or anything. He just simply helped, in any way he could, no matter how rich or poor he happened to be at the time. He was my hero...

Heroes are people with qualities that we desire to have. They can be shallow qualities or character traits that make them special, but either way, we have that desire to be like them in a way, whether we actually do something to change ourselves or not...
I'd love to be someone's hero someday. That would be an amazing honor. Hopefully, I will have the qualities that someone is looking for in a hero someday, but until then, I will continue to learn and strive to be the best individual I can possibly be.