Today is National Heroes’ Day.
Most of the heroes this holiday was dedicated for had long been gone on earth like Apolinario Mabini, a Batangueño and one of the country’s national heroes. But there are still a lot of them living and breathing on the same space with us. They are today’s unsung heroes.
What are the qualifications for someone to be called a hero? Or should there be? Being called a hero could probably be the greatest appellation an individual can have in his life.
Heroes are often associated with a life expired due to unshaken principle. Guns, armours, bloody battles, heroes abound. They save and protect lives. I know a lot of them. I know you know a lot of them, too.
When I attended the first Batangas Educators’ Conventionin 2010 where CNN Hero of the Year for 2009 Efren Peñaflorida was the resource speaker, I’d seen numbers of heroes in the venue. Educators, mentors, teachers, however you call them, they are some of today’s unsung heroes.
September of 2009, when typhoon Ondoy hit the country, heroes emerged from different parts of the country. These are the people who saved lives, people who contributed something for some lives to continue even when it seemed no chance left.
Most of us have family members or friends who are struggling overseas in search for a greener pasture. We, here in WOWBatangas, appreciate OFWs who are sacrificing each day of their lives they could have spent with their loved ones here in the Philippines in exchange of opportunities to provide the latter with a more comfortable life.
Heroes are everywhere. He/She may be sitting next to you. A hero may be living in YOU. You could be one of today’s unsung heroes. You need not to be perfect to be a hero. You don’t need the approval of anyone. You don’t need power or authority to make this world a better place and be considered a hero. Okay, so that may seem so idealistic or so immense for most of us. But believe me, it’s NOT impossible.
Have you seen the movie Pay It Forward? Normally, when we did something good for somebody, we expect that somebody would do the same thing to pay you back. But in the movie, instead of paying backward, the characters pay it forward. If i did a good deed to you, you have to pay it forward by doing something good to three other people. And each of those three persons would pay it forward to three other persons until you have like a pyramid of good deed.
I won’t be telling the movie summary, you can Google it. I remember back in college, my teacher in Theology II asked us to materialize that idea of paying it forward. It felt fulfilling. If each one of us could actually do it, who knows how far your good deed could go.
As a conclusion, aside from saving and protecting lives, making a difference (and I mean positive difference) in the lives of other people is one easy way for you to be a hero. You may not be realizing it, but you can be a hero even without a medal of valor or a monument at the heart of the city.
And sometimes, you have to be your own hero. 