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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Unsung Hero (12/07/06)
I Want To Be A Hero.

Growing up in the Midwest, heart of this great country of ours was the best time of my life. Childhood can’t be beat although at the time adulthood looked awful wonderful.


Play weddings in the neighborhood marrying out favorite television personality or singer, yearning for the day when we would have our real Prince Charming to take care of us while we raised perfect children.


taking with friends in the neighborhood about aspirations and expectations were both intense and funny. We just knew that we would achieve our dreams and be the perfect citizen because this was America!


Stevie was going to be a fireman and climb ladders saving little old ladies from death. Tommy would be a cop ...oops ...policeman and shot the bad guys and keep our city safe,
while Pammy would be the nurse that patched them up until they were ready to be put into the slammer by Peter who was going to be the city Judge. Me? I wavered between artist and singer to movie star and hair stylist FOR the movie stars when I realized I was too shy to get up on a stage or set to perform. The only think I knew for sure was that I wanted to be a hero like everyone else.


Time passed and adolescents came and went. Some of my friends achieved their goal, some did better, others did worse. I became a wife and a mother. My dreams of being a hero were set aside. I was now on the sidelines waiting for my chance to make a difference and come in at the last moment swooping down to save the day.


I spent my days with little people who hadn’t a clue as to what dangers in the world lurked nearby, unlike my own childhood when one could play outdoors after dark wearing their baby dolls on a hot summer night waiting until it was cool enough to go to sleep. Back then our town was safe. Today, it seems no town is safe. So I watch, I clean, I watch, I cook, I watch and pull them inside when I see they them break a rule.


I tried crafts, I tried getting involved in clubs, I tried to be useful at church but I have no skills that will make me a hero. I have never been able to safe anyone. I have not stepped in at the knick of time to prevent an upcoming catastrophe. I had failed.


“Mom, you are looking weird, again!” My son accused. I snapped out of my pity party back into my Mom role.


“Weird is a very vague word.” I reminded.


”Okay. You stand there like a statue, staring at nothing with a nothing look on your face like you’re dead.” He responded.


Dead. Is that what I felt inside? I stared at him wondering
about his very acute assessment.


“What?” He asking impatiently.


“I think you just gave me some insight.” I told him with a smile.


“What do you mean? What’s insight?” My 12 year old looked at me puzzled.


“Insight is to realize you are thinking or acting in a way you had not realized before.” I answered.


“Yeah, yeah.” He stated with disappointment before grabbing his baseball glove and heading out the door.
“I will be at the park.”


Insight from a 12 year into the life of an adult who had not realized she was a hero. A hero who bore no medals. A hero who may never ride a float in a parade. A hero not likely to make the news. But a hero never the less. A hero who may play the most important role in saving our country from destruction. I am a mother. I mold and shape the future but teaching my children biblical values, right from wrong choices and encouragement to be the best they can be in a world that tells them they are nothing unless they conform to its sinful ways. It is a never ending job taking super strength at times when I am dead tired and all I want to do is take a nap. Yes, as Larry Boy from the Veggie Tales animation might say, I am that hero!
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Member Comments
Member
Date
julie wood
12/14/06
I loved the specifics in this story--the narrator's individual childhood playmates, each one named and described in his or her own specific role-play; the things the narrator tried to do as an adult to give her life meaning. I also liked the repeated use of "hero" in one paragraph with all its implications, as well as the repetition of "watch," conveying the mother's main job in the midst of many others. ("I watch, I cook, I watch...etc.").

A few typos: "adolescents came and went" should be "adolescence"; "the only think" should be "thing"; "I've never been able to safe anyone" should have "save."

Great message about the true value of being a stay-at-home mom--an encouragement to me and, I trust, to all stay-at-home moms!
Donna Powers
12/18/06
A very nice picture of an unsung hero. A bit scattered yet you got your point across. Nice work.
Phyllis Inniss 
12/19/06
This is a great article especially for those moms who feel that they're not doing anything important, yet your last paragraph sums it up beautifully. You are there for your children, encouraging and nurturing them to fit them into a society that has changed so much since you were a child. Well done.