Give a Shout Out to the Hero in Your Life!

General Discussion
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We all know someone who’s a real life Hero! They’re the people who stand up for what’s right, defend those who can’t defend themselves, or work to better the lives of others.

Do you have a loved one who helps you work through tough times?
A soldier who defends your country?
A person who fights just to be their honest self every day?
A teacher that inspires you to follow your dreams?

Even if it’s something small, like a close friend sending you uplifting memes to brighten a bad day - that’s heroic in our book!

So tell us about them, these heroic folks! Who are these unmasked paragons, and what makes them a Hero to you?

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I read this at his memorial service.

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((big, big hug)) This has me tearing up. I am sorry you lost such an important man, but I am responding to how lucky you and everyone around your grandfather were. I know you will continue to embody the same grace and humor you described. Thank you so much for sharing.

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@portalman That made me a crying mess (in a good way). My grandpa was like a dad, too, and this brought back fond memories. Thank you for sharing his story.

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As I was growing up, there were heroes I looked up to. People who I wanted to work for more than anything, people I wanted to follow, and please, and make proud.

But I’ve learned you can’t depend on someone else’s approval for your own self satisfaction. Nor can you use their success in your eyes as a rubric for your own success. In the end, the best hero you can have is yourself.

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So I know it sounds silly, but this guy right here is one of my heroes. When I got him over 8 years ago, I was in a very dark place. I had a roommate who made me feel bad about who I was. She wrote me off as some geek and took every opportunity to show me I was nothing. So I got a new apartment and a puppy. He gave me a reason to get up and going. In the time since he has helped me through some hard situations. He even saved me from a would be attacker once. So yes, it’s silly. But my dog has been a hero in my life. I really don’t know where I would be without him.

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There have been a lot of people who have been heroes in my life. They inspired me in so many ways. Now I try to be hero to someone else. Whether it’s just a one time thing or not. I’m happy to help.

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Not silly at all. I’m sure life would be miserable without a pooch in my life and I have seen remarkable things from them. Good for you! Good for him!

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I hold those who serve in our military and our first responders in very high regard. They are our national heroes, in the broad, social sense. But, there are our personal heroes. Those individuals that shape us, whether we know it at the time or not and they do it in positive ways. For surely I think most of us have our villains as well, who to often shape us in ways it can take years of therapy to understand and deal with.

If heroes can be those that inspire us, I have my 4 (two well known and two very personal). Sadly, all taken from me and the world before their time. They were really the ones that were/are my shining beacons.

Joey Ramone: You taught me the courage needed when taking something in a bold, new direction.

Gianni Versace: You taught me that design is art.

Merle Long: You taught me to be who I was. (Merle was a gay man in the 1970’s. Not the easiest of times. Yet, he embraced who he was and lived life with tremendous joy, even as he felt often ostracized by those he’d known growing up. He was a dancer and a good one at that. Often making his living by that profession. Tragically he contracted HIV which in turn gave way to AIDS, at the time when they hadn’t even determined that AIDS existed. He went into the hospital with pneumonia, and never got better. How could a man in his late 20’s, in fantastic shape, not recover from pneumonia. Nobody had any answers. It was heartbreaking.)

Scott Holmes: You taught me to believe in myself. (Scottie was the sweetest, kindest, most giving person I’ve ever known. Talk about the embodiment of “Pay it forward.” That was Scottie. I came from a highly…dysfunctional family, to frame that in the politest way possible. As I always tell people, my father was my genetic father, but Scottie was “my dad”. He was a “gear head” at heart and in his early 30’s finally scored a job as a mechanic on the pit crew of drag racer Don Prudhomme. He had been with the team about six months and they were at the Winter Nationals, he was walking down pit lane and had a cerebral hemorrhage. He was dead before he hit the ground, but he went out quick and living his dream. For that, I have always been grateful.)

Those are my heroes. A motley group to be sure, which seems only fitting for me, I suppose.

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That’s not silly at all! Animals are a huge part of our lives and they are definitely valid as heroes. I know I wouldn’t be the person I am without my fur babies!

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There are a lot of people in my life that are my heroes but I’m going to speak about just two of them.

The first is my paternal grandfather who I only vaguely remember. He came here by himself as a teen from Palermo, Sicily somewhere around the nineteen teens seeking the American dream. He always stood up for what was right and he loved his adopted country with all his heart. He never let anything stand in his way not even when the people around him treated him disrespectfully during WWII simply because he never became a naturalized citizen.

He suffered a lot of persecution at the time and even had his business taken away from him. Even through the tough times he always managed to get back on his feet and he did so with a smile. I remember him as a jolly man who always had a piece of candy or some other gift in his pocket for me and a funny story to tell. I still have a stuffed dog he gave me when I was born. From him I learned to stand for what I believe in and to never let people walk all over you.

The second person in my family that is a hero to me is one of my uncles. He was from Germany and he came to the US in the late 1930s. He was raised by his parents in a beautiful house that sat on a lot of property. He used to tell us stories of growing up there and about how kind his mother was and the trouble he and his brothers would get up to. That all changed though when the Nazi party took control.

At some point they started building what would become a concentration camp right in his family’s back yard. His parents, wanting to save their family and knowing they were in danger, sent him off to stay with family in the states promising to follow with his brothers who had gotten sick and couldn’t travel at the the time. He never saw them again. He would go on to help people try to locate family members who were lost during that time. I’m not even sure how many people he helped to get the closure he was never able to get for himself.

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Thank you so much! Animals really are the best! I’m so glad yours bring you joy.

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That is amazing! Thank you for sharing!

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The DC Universe forum community and moderators are my heroes. Before you all think this is pandering or something like that, it isn’t. It is honest from my heart and soul. All y’all are my 2019 heroes. You guys kept me literally alive earlier this year. The friendships I have formed here have allowed me to see a self-worth I never saw. I talk about the fan event in March because I had every intention of ending it right before it. It gave me a hope that my life could be different. I could be happy and I have fought every day since returning from that event to do just that. So I send a special thanks to people like @JLWWSM, @Pretty.Poison.Bombshell, @HubCityQuestion, @RandallusPrime, @DanTheManOne1, @HubCityQuestion, @Don-El, @Nathan.Payson, @Mae, @nu52, and soooooo many more that have contributed to this year. I especially thank @Applejack for seeing something that I didn’t see in myself and that I am still learning to completely embrace and see about myself. That I am worth something. Thank you AJ and everyone else on these forums. You are my heroes!

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I also mentioned @MattMcDonald and @JeepersItsTheJamags but found out I can only mention 10 people in a post lol so there is something new i learned about 2.0 tonight.

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Its not silly at all @AlexCarr.

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My mom and dad are my heroes. They came to America to provide a better life for me and my sisters, and they are always there for us through the good and bad.

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And to think I made the list twice! :grin:

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Bahahaha, this is why I shouldn’t type at 2 in the morning! I didn’t even notice that. We will just say you must have made a pretty big impact. Let’s go with that k? Hahaha

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