What Is a Hero?

Its dinner time and your frantically shoving down your plate of food at the dinner table as quickly as you can. At last, you finally manage to get that last spoon full down and race like a lightning bolt to the television.  You’re excitedly scrolling through the channels hoping you didn’t miss any part of the new episode, until you finally spot your favorite show that happens to be about super heroes. Jaw dropped on to your knees in amazement as the hero in the show single handedly saves the city from evil monsters.  Everyone loves seeing heroes on television and movies s as they save humanity from world ending epidemics, but in reality, our true heroes are everyday people solving big or little problems in society to make it a better place.  

When it comes to being a hero, some devote their entire lives to helping and saving humanity, but others decide to just make it more of a hobby or even an act of kindness. Picking either one in life or as people have done in the past, doesn’t make them or you any less of a hero. Doctors of all kinds are held at a high prestigious level in society and are easily considered a hero to most. They put in countless hours of determination and backbreaking work in school and their everyday fields to hold this honor of being called a hero. Just like the men and women in scrubs and white coats, simple everyday volunteers who donate a few or a substantial amount of time are also a hero. By volunteering at a soup kitchen, a shelter, or even advocating for a good cause are all key steps in helping solve problems in today’s society. On the news or article online you might even see large corporations donating to charities and causes, which in their own way is making earth a better place also. Even the smallest donations can provide a child their next meal, or in the long run, a new future all because of that one act of kindness. Everyone has a hero inside of them; it’s just a matter of unleashing it into the world.

Most of the time, heroes go unnoticed for their contributions, sacrifices, and efforts, but this only builds character knowing it wasn’t done for publicity but rather from the heart. According to Christopher Reeve, the founder of New Hope Children’s Shelter, “a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” Christopher Reeve might not be a hero to all, but he without a doubt he is to the kids at the New Hope shelter. Reeve himself was abandoned at only the age of 12 and faced countless days of starvation, being jumped from one foster home to another like a pet, and even the harsh reality of being involved in gangs. He could have continued his downhill spiral, but instead decided to get his life together to eventually help others. The journey to his life now was filled with failures and disappointments but he found the strength to “endure” and “persevere” his endless cycle of obstacles. Finally he reached where he is today; once an ordinary bum on the streets to a hero for thousands of kids. Like Christopher Reeve, the true heroes will find the time and effort to lend a hand for whatever problem Mother Nature puts in front of them to be solved. These selfless individuals might go forever unnoticed but without them here, we would truly be a corrupt world.