What makes a hero?

Many have their own ideas...

I would like to share one of mine with you today...

No one sets out to be a hero...

But more often than not...

They are chosen to become one...

An obstacle is set before them...

And they must make a choice...

And regardless of their choice...

They embark on a journey...

A journey of discovery...

And of growth...

Of new experiences...

They will teach...

And in turn be taught...

They may not even realise they are on a journey...

They may not even realise they have grown...

But they will have grown...

They will be reminded of the choice they made at the beginning of their journey...

"Every action has its equal-opposite reaction."

The climax approaches...

They are tested...

And they will fail...

But they wouldn't be called a hero...

If they didn't get back up...

To the end...

And in the end, they may fail again...

But they are not called heroes because of their successes...

They are called heroes because of the lives they touched...

The sacrifices they made...

And because of the legacies they leave behind...

So that I think, is what makes a hero.

Project Statement

I’ve loved hero stories all my life. I was raised with a Disney Happily-Ever-After mindset. As I grew older I realized that the world didn’t run that way. Sometimes the heroes lose… and yet we still love them…
I think what we love most about heroes are the things we want to be. We want to be strong, we want to be powerful, we want to be loved. But even when we see their weaknesses, we don't hate them… we only love them more, because we can understand what it is to be weak. But when they fail, we get angry.
Depending on the circumstances we may be angry at them because “They weren’t good enough”, or angry for them because “It's not fair, they deserve to win”.
We all want a happy ending, and when someone we care about doesn’t get one, we are upset.
I want to stress… happily-ever-afters are not guaranteed, but that doesn’t mean our journeys are discounted. Every moment of our lives overlaps with someone else’s, and the effects we have on them may very well last longer that we do.
Every moment matters, every person matters, and every story matters. Even when we fail to complete our goals, we are not failures. Even when others fail us, we must have grace and forgive them, because we too have failed.
Our happily-ever-after may not look like what we imagined, but where our plans fail, the greatest plan prevails. A greater plan than we could ever imagine.

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