An Emerging hero
Hitomi Ono
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The long hall of essays
Interpreting a good hero
According to Merriam Webster App, a hero is “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.” Although a typical image of a hero for me is a superman flying towards a burning building and saving someone, all heroes don’t have to save someone from a burning building, nor save someone in a big way. A hero is someone who saves someone else, who does not act for their own benefit.
A hero is a person who can donate a present to an anonymous child. Imagine a child who never gets to celebrate his or her birthday because of family conditions. Consider how the child, who never got present will be saved if he or she even got one present that was meant for their birthday. People in the world usually act as if they cared about those people who can not have standard living. Unless they purposefully feel that they don’t want to feel bad, stating that statement, but not showing the act of care, is the act of neglecting. However, there are people in the world who can become a hero to people. They are the ones who keep their promises to what they say. For example, a father, who shows an act of worry to the ones who don’t live normally, buys a wrong toy for his son. He sees a donation box when going to the cashier for refund. Without thinking, the father puts the toy in there because he felt like he should. Even if he didn't predict it, the father who has just put the toy in the box became an anonymous hero to a child across the world.
A hero is an older sister protecting the younger brother from catching a cold, and avoiding him from missing an important test. Edward is a 6th grader who will have all of his finals tomorrow. Right when he was going to dash out the door, his older sister, Whitney, comes down and gives him an umbrella. She tells him it’s going to rain in the afternoon, right around when he will be walking home. Already having too many things to hold on, Edward says no, but his sister insists on bringing it. In the afternoon, just as his sister told, rain was pouring. Although not happy with the fact that his sister was right, he was happy he wouldn’t catch a cold, which will end up in him missing his important finals. The next day, when he was taking the finals, he noticed some people were missing in his class. Their teacher had announced that they were sick because they didn't bring an umbrella, and became wet while going home. Now, Ed has to thank his sister for not making his grade lower, or for stopping him from becoming sick. A kindness of his sister Whitney had turned her into a hero of Ed, since Ed was refusing to, but his sister insisted on bringing the umbrella. Saving someone without any intention, Whitney was a quiet hero to Edward.
Both the unknown admiration of a child with a man and the sister’s worrying feeling towards her brother ended up being a hero story because of important decisions. An action taken in that moment, and a planned action both came from the feeling of wanting to save or help someone. These people only acted upon their will, not for their benefit. Some may hesitate and not even try to, but not even hesitating, the two heroes became heroes in my definition. Did someone ever help you and think how they saved you? Have you ever considered the risks people took to make you happy? A hero can be anyone. However, hero can’t be a hero if someone won’t think them as a hero.
A Long Gone Hero
To me, a hero is someone who saves someone else, who does not act for their own benefit. My untouchable hero, Florence Nightingale, was a nurse who appeared mainly in the Crimean War. The undefeated British Army was losing, due to a huge loss in the numbers of the soldiers who were supposed to be young and healthy. It was discovered that soldiers were dying from non-proper care of their injuries. Florence went into the wartime hospital with other nurses, and established the current day nursing expectations. This figure perfectly fits into my hero definition regarding the fact that she went to help others without considering her own benefits.
Through the responsibility of her job, Florence Nightingale is an untouchable hero. During this time in history, the job of a nurse was something people would work as if they did not have a decent knowledge for other jobs. With that, not only did Florence go through opposition, but she gave an effort to improve the infected hospitals: “...Nightingale took firm administrative measures, set up sanitary kitchen and laundry facilities, and procured supplies with private funds” (Miké). Furthermore, Florence Nightingale ambled through the hallways of the hospital each night, looking at each of the soldiers. From this walk, she was called the “Lady of the Lamp.” Every action of her, using her own money, using last bits of energy for taking care of soldiers, were not a response to a disheveled thought of profit and loss.
My dad and Florence Nightingale are both heroes to me because of their dedication to others. Coming from a different country, I could tell from my childhood that my dad had hard times understanding America. Even with that, my dad took a risk of raising me in this country, where he never lived until 14 years ago. He gave me the time of his own life, and the “funds” he could have used for some other private luxury of his own. Likewise, Florence Nightingale used her own private funds to improve hospitals, and used her own time to care of injured British soldiers. The two are both heroes because of their devotions to what they think are important.