hero in the mirror - Talha khan

TALHA KAHN says life builds our ability to grow the person within.

What is it to be a hero? Look In the mirror and you’ll know. Look into your own eyes and tell me you aren’t heroic. You have not endured. Or suffered. Or lost the things you care about most. yet here you are, a survivor who goes to school five days a week. One of the places you spend some of your most cherish able moments. You’re not a coward for staying at home and not getting out of bed. You rise, so you must be a hero. We all are. Some more than others but none of us alone. Some blow their minds off trying to learn calculus all night long. Others walk by friends enjoying the moment with a smile. Sometimes we cry, sometimes we are cruel. Sometimes we disregard others. But this is life. Regular student or smartest in math. Tall or short. From the country or outside of the country. You live here. You chose to enter that building of brick and knowledge. A hero isn’t always someone who lives above us keeping us safe. A hero isn’t a God or an ideal. A hero lives here, on the street, among us, with us, always here but rarely recognized. Look in the mirror and see yourself for what you truly are. You’re a student who never stays down. You’re a hero. This is your life. It’s your choice. This is a message from a student to fellow students. I’ve written articles to encourage advanced learning in school. Now I want to reach out to the students. Maybe this will be a regular article. Or maybe it’ll be something else. We are everyday people who go to school in hopes of grasping knowledge and achievement and it’s our choice to become something great. Some call us children, we call ourselves badass. We study hard, succeed in our exams and sometimes we go through so much we get stuck. But being a student doesn’t just make you a regular person. You are who you choose to be. It’s those decisions moving you through your days. A college kid graduates and becomes a scientist but he didn’t have to. He could’ve let the opportunity slide and eat burgers off a desk job for the next 20 years. Instead he became great and lived his life eating burgers off a polished table. We all dream to be great. We want money, love, fame, the feeling of success without any heavy strains in our head. We want. We make choices. Sometimes we feel we have no choice but to go to school or to choose between working or sleeping in class. There is always a choice. You didn’t have the only option to study. It was your choice because deep within you, you knew you wanted to become something. Something good. For your family, for yourself. For your dreams. Our dreams are what keep us going. We don’t have to rely on better equipment and yet we don’t have to ignore it either. Sometimes all we need to do is ask. If you’re scared to ask the teacher for a pencil or help, don’t. You made a scary move, but you faced it. If you’re afraid to show your work to a teacher because you’ll get the answers wrong, show the teacher and and face your fears. If you are going to ask a girl to prom then face it . . . What? It can’t hurt to ask. In the end being scared only gives us a chance to be brave. It might seem a simple task but, in my eyes, and maybe even in your eyes, you’ll see yourself a hero. You made the hard choice. This doesn’t mean every choice we make will help us succeed, some might make us fail and now you might think well why should I face my small fears then. You won’t know the outcome to a situation without trying. You must be smart, talented, awesome. We always have a choice. To hide or to be brave. In the end, whatever comes our way, through studies, on the school field, at home we all have a choice. To stay down or stand up. If you’re wondering do I do the same as I speak. Yup. I auditioned for a TV show role and I was terrified to go to the audition. But they liked it and now I’m in the top selection. I tried. I’m just like you. I go to school. I get wet in the rain and I also get mini migraines from studying for exams. That’s okay. I chose what I wanted to and we all can. It’s not who we are already, it’s what we do defining us. We not that we’re always prepared, we’re not. It’s not that we have the best grades, we don’t always. It’s not even that we were born winners or complete badasses. I think we are though. But one thing we always are that we carry with us through school and into the whole wide world is the symbol of choice. The choice to not be a failure. To fall and when we do get back up. To leave a mark on the world. We get beat but, when we do, we can choose to regroup and find another way. Sometimes we didn’t prepare enough, but we still choose to sit the test and face our fears. It’s okay if we fail or get low grades. always another way. Another choice. We are only human after all. But don’t let that fool you either. We can choose to study to the best of our capabilities. Our elders came to school, became great. They made their choices. Let’s make ours. Let’s not always win, but never ever quit. Let’s be something to ourselves or to others. A hero.

‘Our dreams are what keep us going’