I was sifting through piles and piles of student work today in an effort to get through report card grading (which, by the way, is HARD), when I came across an activity I had my kids do the first week of school about what they wanted to be when they grew up and who their heroes were.
As children, we think a lot about growing up. Not only are we constantly asked what we want to be when this happens, but we pick our role models and idols from those who have already reached that stage. Sports stars, music icons, community heroes- we look at those older than us and decide who we want to be like. We idealize these people. I remember teachers, babysitters, neighbors who I thought could do nothing wrong. I see my kids with these same kinds of idols.
I also remember seeing these idols disappear before my eyes, after finding out someone smoked, or swore, or lied. People always wonder where the heroes of their youth went. All those idols we had fade and tarnish over time… or maybe we just grow up and realize that we were tricked. Idealism blinded us and convinced us of greatness where there was only mediocrity. We see the mistakes of our fathers, learn the faults of our mothers. We see the whole picture and find that the people we put on pedestals throughout our childhoods do not belong there. We learn that loving someone, looking up to someone, is more than finding a person surrounded by perfection or wrapped in light. We find our real heroes and our true loves in the ordinary light of day. They are people we can fight with, people we can talk to, people we can watch and criticize. But most of all, they are people who touch us and become a part of us. They are the people who can survive the harsh world of the real and the true and yet, somehow, remain good in spite of their faults.
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