My personal superwoman
Elizabeth Smith
Meet my hero
Katie Smith
No Capes Needed
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines Hero as "a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities." A hero might be Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or Captain America. These people are all identified as charming young men wearing a costume around town in a fancy car or by flight. In reality, heroes are all around us. Everyone has a different person they consider their hero. A hero is someone who inspires another to become a better person. A hero has an intuition to do good, and acts on it.
A hero is someone who devotes their life to justice. Imagine a battered woman never getting justice from the person who wronged her. Consider the fact that she may not be able to afford life on her own without her abusive partner or be able to pay for an expensive lawyer who will get her justice. Is life better with food on the table and bruises on your body than otherwise? Lawyers who work for human rights cases pro bono help those like battered women achieve a better life. With the help of these lawyers, the battered women can have food on the table to feed their children and self and not be abused by their partners. Working pro bono, the abused families can get justice even if they are left with nothing to support the lawyers who will fight for them. Lawyers work as a hero to these women and children to give them justice and financial support so they can live a sustainable life without their partners.
A hero is someone who fights for those who can't. Hundreds of thousands of people a year are diagnosed with breast cancer just in the U.S.. There are also hundreds of thousands of people that lace up their tennis shoes and walk to find a cure. Donned in pink, these heroes march strong together to fight for the people who can't. Not only are the people who walk in these events heroes, so are the fundraisers who pledge money to find the cure for breast cancer. Many of those diagnosed with breast cancer are bedridden and cannot participate in these events. Their family, friends, and survivors walk to give the diagnosed a fighting chance. Patients with cancer fight for those who have lost their life to cancer. This can be through remaining positive and not giving up or being determined to eradicate the disease, whatever it takes. Either in the hospital bed or walking on the city streets, anybody fighting for those who can no longer fight are heroes.
In conclusion, devoting one's life to justice and fighting for those who can't are both characteristics of heroes. Heroes have a natural instinct to do good and work every day to demonstrate this. There are many ways someone could be a hero. A hero can be a lawyer who does pro bono work, but you don't need a law degree to be a hero. Anyone, including yourself, can walk for a cure in awareness walkathons or pledge money to them. Heroes are all around us, and everyone has an opportunity to be heroic to someone.
Heart full of kindness
A hero is someone who inspires another to become a better person. A hero has an intuition to do good, and acts on it. Mother Teresa was a nun who worked selflessly devoting her life to the desperately poor. In 1979 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her service. She is my hero. Mother Teresa is my hero because she fought for the rights of people from all backgrounds and devoted her life to justice.
Mother Teresa changed many people’s lives from all backgrounds. In her lifetime she established the Missionaries of Charity in which she aided those in need, especially the poor. However, Mother Teresa helped not only the poor in money, but the missions she created "provided shelter for orphans, lepers, the terminally ill, drug addicts, alcoholics, and people from third world countries" (“Mother Teresa”). The doors to her shelters of peace were open to everyone. According to the Newsmakers biography titled "Teresa, Mother," Mother Teresa was indeed blind to the background of the people she helped, she once said,"'The poor are poor no matter if they live under a democracy or a dictatorship. In both cases they need love and care.'" Not only did Mother Teresa help to feed the hungry, educate the uneducated, and provide relief for the poor, she also ensured that those too sick to live could "die with dignity" ("Teresa, Mother"). Mother Teresa devoted her life to helping the less fortunate from all corners of the world and social spectrum.
Both Mother Teresa and my older sister Katie are heroes because both of them have helped those in need by fighting to give them a chance. A biography by Newsmakers entitled "Teresa, Mother" described Mother Teresa as, "Barely five feet tall and under 100 pounds, her diminutive stature was in stark contrast to the magnitude of her deeds." Mother Teresa did so much in her lifetime and helped so many people through her centers of hospice, Missionaries of Charity. My sister Katie has visited Africa and South America to work for service projects and help those in need. Katie has worked for not for profits such as the Enough Project to write and research in an attempt to end genocide. Both of these people work for people they may not know, or not agree with ideologically, but they fight for their justice because they know they are a person, and a person is worth fighting for.
Although my sister has not set up multiple hospice sites worldwide yet, she has inspired me, as Mother Teresa has, to recognize the importance of service and fighting for the justice of all people. Katie Smith is not a recently canonized saint, but she has acted with the compassion and integrity a saint must have. Both of them would give me the advice to not be judging of others and to recognize the needs of the people across the world and right next to me. Through changing people's lives by devoting her own to justice and helping those in need, Mother Teresa has earned the title of my hero. My sister is my hero because like Mother Teresa, she has a passion to fight for others of all backgrounds.