In one of my classes we are giving presentations comparing an element of ancient Greek literature to one found today. One girl gave her presentation about heroes. She talked a lot about Spiderman and the qualities that make him a superhero. I’ve only seen the first movie once so I don’t know too much about it, but she used this quote in her presentation and it got me thinking about my own heroes.
“We need a hero. Courageous, sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for ’em, cheer for ‘em, scream their names. And years later, they’ll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who told them to hold on a second longer. I believe there’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble…”
I think it’s true that we need heroes. They are the people we look up to, strive to be like, people who make the world a better place. They are the ones who tell us to hold on a second longer when we think we can’t anymore, and they are the ones who save us.
I came to a huge realization this week—that there isn’t a problem I can’t fix. My parents taught me that but I didn’t realized it until a few days ago, because for my entire life, if I had a problem, they were there to help me fix it. Now that I’m on my own for the first time, if I have a problem, I have to figure out how to fix it by myself. I’ve been abroad for eight weeks and six days and have encountered my fair share of issues. It was only this past weekend that I looked back at them and thought, “Oh my gosh, I’ve actually survived.” It was a huge realization for me—that I have solved every problem I’ve had here by myself.
To know there isn’t anything I can’t do, no problem I can’t solve, is a huge feat for me, and I couldn’t have done it without the knowledge my parents gave me, or without figuring it out on my own.
I’ve been thinking about the people I look up to most: Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Being a teenage girl, I also love Carles Puyol, Morgan Freeman, Beyonce (of course), and a few more here and there. Then I started thinking about my heroes: Mom and Dad, and finally, myself.
I do believe there is a hero in all of us, a piece of our soul that “keeps us honest, gives us strength, and makes us noble.” A piece of us that makes us want to hold on when we are fighting a battle like cancer, a battle that sometimes we feel we cannot win. It is the hero in us that tells us not to give up, that makes us fight until we win. To find this hero though, we must learn from the heroes outside of us, the heroes in our lives. I am slowly discovering the hero in me, thanks to my heroes at home.
