HEROES Week~ Hero!

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day (again!) and that means it's time for HEROES week once again!
First, let's go over the meaning of HEROES (I came up with the meaning when I was twelve, so bear with me).

Help, because
Everyone has a chance and deserves proper
Respect. It's too quick for anyone's life to be
Over, and to listen and be a friend can really save a life.
Everyone needs to be a hero.
Stand for what's right.

This annual series was originally based off Superchick's hit "Hero."
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Hero

No one sits with him,
He doesn't fit in
But we feel like we do when we make fun of him.
'Cause you want to belong,
Do you go along
'Cause his pain is the price paid for you to belong?
It's not like we hate him or want him to die
But maybe he goes home and thinks suicide
Or he comes back to school with a gun at his side
And the kindness of you might have saved his life...

Heroes are made when you make a choice.

You could be a hero,
Heroes do what's right.
You could be a hero,
You might save a life.
You could be a hero,
You could join the fight
For what's right
For what's right
For what's right.

No one talks to her,
She feels so alone,
She's in too much pain to survive on her own.
The hurt she can't handle overflows to a knife,
She writes on her arm, wants to give up her life.
Each day she goes on is a day that she's brave.
Fighting the lie that giving up is the way.
Each moment of courage, her own life she saves
When she throws the pills out, a hero is made.

Heroes are made when you make a choice.

You could be a hero,
Heroes do what's right.
You could be a hero,
You might save a life.
You could be a hero,
You could join the fight
For what's right
For what's right
For what's right.

No one talks to him about how he lives,
He thinks that the choices he makes are just his.
Doesn't know he's a leader with the way he behaves,
And others will follow the choices he's made.
He lives on the edge, he's old enough to decide.
His brother who wants to be him is just nine.
He can do what he wants
Because it's his right.
The choices he makes change a nine-year-old's life.

Heroes are made when you make a choice.

You could be a hero,
Heroes do what's right.
You could be a hero,
You might save a life.
You could be a hero,
You could join the fight
For what's right
For what's right
For what's right.

Little Mikey D. was the one in class who everyday a bully harassed.
This went on for years until he decided that never again would he shed another tear
So he walked through the door,
Grabbed a 4'4' out of his father's dresser drawer,
He said "I can't take life no more"
And like that,
Life can be lost.

But THIS AIN'T EVEN ABOUT THAT,
All of us just sat back and watched it happen.
Thinking "it's not my responsibility to solve a problem that isn't about me."
This IS our problem!
This is just one of the daily scenarios in which we choose to close our eyes instead of doing the right thing.
If we make a choice to be the voice for those who won't speak up for themselves,
How many lives would be saved, changed and rearranged?
Now it's OUR TIME to pick a side.
So don't keep walking by,
Not wanting to intervene
'Cause you just wanna exist and never be seen.
So let's wake up
And change the world
Our time is now.

You could be a hero (our. time. is. Now!)
Heroes do what's right.
You could be a hero (our. time. is. Now!)
You might save a life.
You could be a hero (our. time. is. Now!)
You could join the fight
For what's right...
What's right...
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Does this song seem familiar to you? Probably. Superchick was a very popular band when this song came out. Superchick has a lot of other inspiring songs, so check out:

"One More" (one of my absolute favorites!)
"Courage" (mainly about anorexia nervosa)
"Hold" (most beautiful Superchick song... ever...)
"We Live" (live your life before it has a visible expiration date)
"Stand in the Rain" (my church's Christian Band a few years back performed this song... didn't make Nationals, but would have if the vocalist didn't forget some lyrics and the drummer didn't, um, break a drum...)
"So Beautiful" (about how you're beautiful the way you are)

When I first heard "Hero," I was a nine-year-old moshing at a concert. Yes, nine. AND moshing. I never thought of this song, as, like, anything. I had a lot of friends, but I was also homeschooled and didn't experience bullying the way I do now. I do not really get bullied, but everyone experiences it. And in most cases, it does NOT feel good. There are three people you can be:

• The bullied
• The bully
• The by-stander

Pick a side. You wanna know who I am? Well, most of us have been all three. Even the bully. I will explain to you my stories and why I sometimes fit in all three categories.

I have been insulted---a lot---for my awkward personality. I am socially awkward, but not in a quiet way... I mean in a really weird and really loud way. I've done some super weird things since I've started eighth grade at my new school. I had some leeway, but not much, for being Faith's sister. The eleventh and tenth-graders are highly looked up to at my school (no seniors go there yet). Faith is a sophomore, so all my teachers were like, "Who are you? What's your last name? Ezell? Aw, you're Faith's sister! And your name is Hope? Aw, you two are just little cuties!" Yeah, the majority of my teachers are girls, as you'd expect. But despite how annoying it is to explain the fact I am related to Faith, the teachers... eh, some of them.... love me becase Faith is like, an overachiever so they expected me to be... but no, I'm a bit of an under-achiever. I get the work done, but I chillax while doing so. So, there are some people that don't like me. Students, in particular. 

There are three social classes in my half of the grade, that's 27 kids.

• The populars, who are actually really nice.
• The thinks-they're-populars, who turn you into a mean girl or jock the second you start hanging out with them.
• My group, which is a lot of black girls, class clowns, math geeks (which that I am not and I kinda wish I was).
• There's only really one outcast, and that's the scary part.

The populars are very nice to pretty much everyone. The author of "Mid-Morning Sunset" is in that group, and he's actually like, probably the top of that group's food chain, as weird as that may sound. That group is very inclusive, and my group, even though it's full of really weird kids (not saying black kids are weird, though, after all I am one), my group is slightly connected to theirs. Especially because me and a couple kids from the popular group are trying to start a band and it's not working very well... I dropped my guitar on the bus...

The thinks-they're-populars are really mean. However, it is possible to join that group and not morph into the stereotype of a cheerleader. Kiana, the author of "A Box of Horrible Treasures" (nominated for the Best Blog of 2011, so please vote) is in that group and is still the same. Again, they are mean. Like, our science teacher had to move this kid's assigned seat because he talks too much. We had to sit next to each other last quarter and neither of us were very happy about it. So, he moved to a seat that's... tada!... right next to little Hopie. "Ugh, I have to sit next to Hope again???" He asked. Of course, the kids in his group laughed. I didn't find that very funny AT ALL, but I laughed along and said, "Oh, what was THAT supposed to mean?" I didn't laugh to cover up how SICK OF HIM I REALLY AM, or to hide how much I wanted to say what he said but right back at him, but to basically say, "I'm not gonna be your little slave. You don't like me? Whatever. I'm just as happy to sit next to you as you are to sit by me. So? Welcome to the third quarter at the Dayton Regional ... School."

Also, when I made the Christmas cards for all 27 eighth graders in my half, that group of kids all rudely tore theirs down or ripped them up. I didn't really expect them to have them to this day, although one kid still has his up and I'm starting to get scared, but I kinda wish they disposed theirs in a nicer way. Like, politely taking it down, folding it, throwing it away. Or, a thank-you could totally work. But that's alright. The 1 thank-you I got after a month of work on 27 cards made it worth it. Only 1 thank-you. Kinda sad, isn't it? But hey, at least someone cared that I spent a lot of time to make everyone smile.

How have I been the bully? Well I joke around a lot. Sometimes it pushes a little too far. But don't worry, I'm quick to apologize. Plus, I've been taking life a lot more seriously lately and people actually come to me for advice. So, yes, I do have good advice if you don't believe me... just "Ask me Anything" in my "Ask Me Anything" page! You have a question? I have an answer.

Most of the time I am a by-stander. "Hero" reaches out to me a lot because, every time I write out the lyrics to this song it reminds me of who I am, what I've done. Now that I am public-schooled, this song is more real than ever before. "It's not my responsibilty to solve a problem that isn't about me," that's what I've been thinking. But, you know what? "This IS our problem!" The problem is that, right there. We step back, do nothing, watch lives fade when we have perfect access to watch them suffer... perfect access to do something. I want to help, but I'm "not wanting to intervene" because I "just wanna exist and never be seen." I want to be seen---we all do---but sometimes it can be like, "Me? Talk to him? No, everyone will give me crap about it." But you have to step out of your comfort zone. Because life? More important than popularity.

Our time is now.