Heroes

When you hear the word "hero", pictures of super-strong men or women with extraordinary abilities usually come to your mind, when I was a kid however I found out this was just a comic-book thing; in real life, heroes are regular men or women who risk their lives to protect the ones who need it. The day I realized this was the day I heard the story about how my dad had risked his own life to protect me from some guy who wanted to kidnap me.

“It was a regular day” he told me “I was waiting in the car with you in my arms just outside the school your sister went at. We had been waiting for at least half an hour for your mom to come back with your sister when this stranger came up to me and asked me where a street was. I didn't recognize the street name he told me (and I seriously doubt it even existed), so he turned around and so did I. I never should have done that. The second I turned around he took out a gun, pointed it at me and started yelling:  “Get to the back seat and leave the kid in the front seat!” over and over again, to which I continuously answered “No! Take the car and just let us go!” and then he must have gotten nervous to see I didn’t obey him, so he decided to hit me in the forehead with his gun. The impact triggered the gun and I will never forget the strenuous and terrifying sound that came with the shot, which scared everyone around: you started crying, people started screaming and even the strange man froze for a few seconds, luckily (and for some reason I could not explain) I didn’t. The second I saw the man distracted, I got out of the car with you in my arms and started running as fast as I could and watched from a distance as the man tried to turn the car on but failed since it was an imported car and had a little trick for the engine to start. So the man left without achieving anything other than scaring every person in the surroundings.”

Obviously I wasn’t able to understand what was really happening the day the strange man approached my father, but when he told me that story I realized what the word “hero” means. That day I realized I knew who my hero was, and would always be: my dad.