According to Webster's Third International Dictionary, ( published in 1981 by Encyclopedia Britannica Incorporated ) a hero is " a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability, an illustrious warrior, or one that shows great courage ". Many people throughout the ages have fit within these guidelines, but do the people who I have described, and shown to be heroes, do the same? Only Rivas, unless one really wants to stretch the boundaries of these quotes, does, for he showed the noted great courage in dropping his addiction to drugs. In my opinion, these definitions should be added as well : anyone who influences another person in a beneficial manner, while receiving no real compensation save the feeling that he or she has done something that could potentially have extraordinary results, anyone who is looked up to by another for reasons of a positive nature, and anyone who would lose sight of themselves and, for motives that would not help them at all, sacrifice something, not necessarily material, for the happiness or well-being of another. All of the people I described fit within these sentences that truly define heroism. Some critical people may complain that anyone could be a hero if what I say is to be taken seriously, making it lose some of the glamour that went with being in an elite class open to a select few. I have already agreed with the former part of that complaint, but as to the latter portion, which really makes it a complaint, I disagree. Being a hero is still a vastly important job the significance of which should not be underestimated. Without heroes, there would be no one for people to look up to and no one for people to try and pattern themselves, in attempts to become better individuals, after. The facts that everyone has their own heroes and that most people are heroes in someone else's eyes doesn't diminish the title in the least. This definition is, indeed, the proper one and my parents, Jim and Della from The Gift of the Magi, and Enrique Rivas from Enrique "Rick" Rivas are all heroes beyond a shadow of a doubt.

hort of the obligation of properly defining it. Everyone can be, and probably is, a hero. Even the person who is reading these words now is more likely than not worthy of this distinction and if they are not, then they inevitably will be. A hero is anyone who has forgotten themselves for another or anyone who has been positively influential in the life of another, for having done a deed that has consequences of a beneficial nature makes one a hero in the eyes of the one they helped. The grandness of the deeds one does to become a hero and the number of people one serves as a hero for is irrelevant, for one is a hero nonetheless. No one life can with any validity be judged more important than another and, therefor, the heroes who influenced that life have also ascended beyond the level where they

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Approximate Word count = 1965
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)