When I was a kid, I wanted to be a superhero-flying around
in cape, saving people, fighting aliens and stuff like that. Then life happened
and my ambitions veered. Since then I have thought of myriad things that I
could become-president, pilot, cartoonist and what not. Finally, I am pursuing
engineering and still I don’t know what I want to become. But one thing I know
for sure now-what I don’t want to be the rest of my life; a mechanical
engineer.
In spite of this, the dream of becoming a superhero never
quite eluded my mind. I have always admired them, haven’t we all? At the end of
the day, we all want to be a hero, if not superhero, in the eyes of whom we
love. I have always been an avid follower of comics and their characters and
what I have discovered is that even after all those powers that these
superheroes have, they have limits; even after all that ultimate strength, they
are vulnerable’ even after all that speed; they have barriers. Their anecdotes
are not legendary because of everything super that they have but because they
could bear pain without breaking. Take any of the hero, the villain is always
stronger and more resourceful. Flash is the fastest man alive yet Dr. Zoom is
faster than him, Wonder Woman is a decorated warrior yet Cheetah is better at
fighting than her, Green Arrow is the best archer but there is Merlyn who aims
better than him, Thor has Loki, Batman has Joker, even Superman has a nemesis
who is stronger than he is-Doomsday.
You might be wondering why I am rambling all this here.
There are people who keep on asking me why follow something that can never be
true, something that is so far from reality. This is an answer to them. I don’t
follow these characters with superhuman powers because I am in awe of their
extraordinary fictional feats or because I need an escape from reality but
because they inspire me to never lose hope. Just before the previous semester, I
got an all-time low SGPA and a dwindling CGPA ensued. It was the beginning of
pre-final year and such a setback was not at all expected. And when I thought I
couldn’t get back in the race I remembered a story. Once Dr. Hurt, Black Glove
and Joker ganged up and poisoned Bruce Wayne and then buried him alive beside
his father’s grave. They beat up Alfred, and burnt down the bat-cave. They
literally took everything from him. Doesn’t it look like a dead end? But he was
Batman….guess what he did? He bench-pressed the coffin lid through 600 pounds
of lose dirt and literally set himself free from his own grave and then kicked
the hell out of those idiots. I tried showing the same perseverance and after
one semester I scored my all-time high SGPA. Though I may not have saved
humanity by doing this but at least I fought my villains.
Wonder woman once said, “I have no idea where I am going to
be tomorrow but I accept the fact that tomorrow will come. And I am going to
rise to meet it.” Every night I tell myself the same thing. These heroes have
taught me the real meaning of silver lining. They have taught me that you can
never accomplish anything without facing adversity. Peter Parker saw his uncle
Ben die to become spiderman, Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his parents to
become Batman, Martian Manhunter watched his entire race getting wiped out,
even Tony Stark was captured in a war before he built his armor. No matter how
gifted you are, there is someone better than you trying to pull you down. You
have to be focused, you have to constantly train, you have to persevere to
outsmart your opponent.
Almost all of them have extraordinary powers but my favorite
one is their superhuman will to adhere to the path of righteousness. Even
though they have all the power in the world, yet they don’t kill people. Even
scumbags like Lex Luthor, Manderin or Joker. This teaches me the power of self-restraint,
the power to stick to your principles. All it would take Thor a swing of hammer
to kill Loki, yet he allows him to live. I live in a hostel and there a number
of distractions here, distractions which can prove fatal in the long run like
the distraction of drugs and alcohol. Almost all of my friends take them, I
refrain myself from doing so because once you step in the swamp, you either
drown or come out really-really dirty. Again, I don’t save the world by
choosing not to smoke weed but I know I save the trust of my mother who
believed in me when she sent me away from her that her son would follow the
moral code that she had taught me since I could learn.
You really don’t need to have superpowers to be a superhero.
And also you don’t have to save the city to be a superhero. As Batman said-a
hero can be anyone. Yes, indeed a hero can be anyone. If you are fighting the
devil of procrastination and doing your work on time, then also you are a hero.
If you can keep a promise you gave to someone then also you are a hero. If you
can dream something and achieve it then also you are a hero. Don’t we all have
that inner desire to gain some super power? And the truth is……we all have that
power within us to turn us into a hero……we all have something super within us
and we don’t have to wear capes to let it come out.
