What is Your Definition of a Hero?

Hero is a word commonly used when speaking of a person who holds fame, fortune, or as someone who has accomplished a great feat. To me, the word hero can be defined as someone who is admired or looked up to by someone else. Every person that you meet or cross paths with in your life has the potential to be a hero, and more than likely, they probably already are. Parents, siblings, victims of tragedy, and people who fight every day of their lives to preserve the wellness of their life are all examples of people who are looked up to by others.

A child learns everything he knows in his younger years of life from his parents. Every choice that a child makes, action he decides to take, and every word that comes from his mouth starts out as a lesson that he learned from his parents. Raising a child, to some, seems like an almost impossible task in itself; which would satisfy the common description of a hero being someone who accomplishes a great feat. A child looks up to his parents for advice, and in a child's mind, one or both of his parents is a hero.

Like a parent, an older sibling could be considered a hero in the way that their little sister or brother looks up to her for advice, guidance, and support. Younger siblings almost always follow in the footsteps of the older brother or sister. Younger siblings usually want to be just like their older brother or sister. Older children teach their younger siblings how to handle real life situations,even if it is not intentional. The younger siblings are taught how to play games, how to interact with people socially, how to handle school situations, and many other life lessons by their older brother or sister.

An everyday person who goes through tough situations and still strives to come out on top can be a hero because they are doing something that many people are unable to do themselves. A single mother or father struggling to make ends meet and still manages to show his or her children how to love and to be compassionate is accomplishing a miraculous feat. Imagine working every day of your life to give your family what they need, no matter how much time it took away from your personal life, or how much stress it caused. Would you still be able to come home with a smile on your face and teach your children to have happiness and love in their hearts, or would you teach them not to have any will to do the things they dream of doing because it did not happen for you?

A full time student working at the same time, and still managing to keep his or her grades up is more than likely looked up to by students who are not able to do the same. They manage to arrive at his or her classes on time every day, complete their homework, leave school, go to work, study for tests, and manage to pass the class and not miss any days from work. To some students who are struggling to keep his or her grades up, the thought of having a job while attending school might seem impossible.

A victim of rape, theft, mugging, or any other violent crime, who is leading a happy and successful life, is considered a hero in many individuals' minds. The fact that he or she can go through each day thinking of what happened the them, reliving each moment of the incident, and still make it through the day and into the night with a smile on his or her face, and determination in their heart seems impossible to nearly everyone you may talk to. These people do not let the situation that occurred drag them down; they keep pushing because they know that life goes on and that they can still be a happy person even though something bad happened to them. These people do not let what happened to them define who they are, instead, he or she strives to be known not as a victim, but as a survivor, and in my mind, as well as many others, that takes an enormous amount of courage.

A person who was brought up in poverty and brings him or herself out of the darkness and into leading a successful and productive life may be looked at as a hero or role model to others who do not think that they can accomplish such a goal. Someone who's family could barely afford to put food on the table, clothes on their back, food in his or her stomach, or could not even afford to buy supplies for them to attend school is a product of poverty. Most of the people who live in poverty end up losing his or her will to survive, or their drive to lead an accomplished life. The person who does not give up, and who keeps fighting to make their life something better than what they have always known can be counted as a survivor. To come out of poverty and strive for something better in life takes a great deal of strength, will, ambition, and courage. To have all of those things is an example of someone who is extremely heroic.

Many people think of our soldiers in Iraq as heroes. I do not dispute the fact that it takes a person having a great amount of courage to fight for his country with his life, but have you ever heard the soldiers' families being referred to as heroes? A wife or husband of a soldier who is overseas fighting for their country is living without his or her life partner. They get up in the morning alone, go through the day by themselves, and they lay down in a half empty bed at the end of the night, with no one there to hold them or to share the story of his or her day with. The children of the soldiers fighting for their country have to go to school every day and listen to other kids talk about how he or she played a game with their parents the night before. That is a luxury that these children do not have, and that most of all the other children take for granted. One of the parents of these innocent little boys and girls is not present for weeks, months, and in most cases, even years. The soldier's entire family has to go through every day wondering if, at any moment, he or she will get that dreaded phone call or that frightening visit that will inform the relative that his or her loved one will not be coming home. there is a great deal of courage, strength, faith, devotion, hope, and love that go along with being the family member of a person who is willing to risk his or her life for their country. I do not know if I could make it every day alone, knowing that a person that I love may not return home, or that I may never see their face again, and for this reason, I personally admire the families of these soldiers.

In my opinion, every person that I meet, and every person that I cross paths with is a hero in his or her own way. there are obstacles in every person's life that he or she has had to overcome. Obviously, if you pass a person on the street, no matter what his or her clothes look like, what they smell like, talk like, or act like, they have not given up; they are still alive. Every person that has the strength to open his or her eyes in the morning, and wakes up to face the trials of that day, no matter how difficult, has the strength to survive, and anyone who has the strength to survive is admired or looked up to by someone who does not have that same will to keep going; that same person that you read about in the obituary of the morning paper who just decided that the hand of cards that he or she was given ended up being too hard to play, so they folded.

Contrary to popular belief, it does not take money or power to be thought of as a hero. to have heroic traits, you do not have to climb the tallest mountain, slay the most ferocious of beasts, or defeat the most evil of all villains. All it takes to be a hero is to posses strength, and not necessarily meaning physical strength. If you are reading this, then obviously you had the will power to get out of bed this morning, and keeping that in mind, there is probably someone out there who admires something that you have done or are presently doing; which in turn would qualify you as being a hero. So the next time you think about the meaning of the word hero, try to think about every person that you have ever met. In most cases, if you sit down and think about it, almost all of those people that have come into your life has someone who looks up to or admires something that he or she has done; making each an every one of those people a hero.

Hope you liked it!! let me know!!!

kristi