Tag: Hope

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Blessings Blog Blogging Healing Health Milestone

Running in my Second 5K

Written by: Preston Thompson

What’s going on family and friends? It’s your favorite and only blogger here at The Book of Think Pieces, Preston, coming with some new content. It has been a month since I last posted a blog so I will get right to it. In the morning I am sticking with my New Year’s Resolution and running in my second 5K.

I am excited I can’t sleep right now so I am writing to get this excitement out of my mind. I feel good, got my family and support cheering me on, I am ready! Training three times a week leading up to this moment. I even picked out my athletic wear for the 5K like it’s the first day of school. Fake Spring has left for the weekend as Winter weather is forecasted for the start of the Saturday morning, and temperatures may climb up slightly by the end of the 5K. Breakfast is ready and stored in the refrigerator, got my alarm set for two hours before the race…I am ready!

Well, wish me luck, and I will see you at the finish line!

And if you have any advice for my next 5K, please comment below. Have a good Saturday!

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African American Basketball Believe black blogger Black History Month Blessings Blog Blogging Lessons Life Motivational Perseverance Perspective Positive Strength Thinking Thoughts Work

What LeBron James New Record Setting Milestone Taught Me

On Tuesday, February 7th, 2023, it finally happened. A convincingly unbreakable record held for 38 years was broken, and a new record was set that is on-going. If you haven’t figured it out by now I am talking about LeBron James becoming the All-Time Leading Scorer of the NBA regular season.

Basketball is my favorite sport. Although I was not good enough to make an organized team until joining a summer intramural league in college, I watched basketball on tv since maybe three (maybe before then). You could say I have been a part of basketball culture my whole life. Not just on the court, but I also follow my favorite NBA players off the court as well. And with the evolution of social media my algorithms seem to fix itself on the NBA players of old, present, and new.

Then there’s LeBron James. A man who lived up to the hype before suiting up for his first NBA career game. A man who revolutionized the game, a one-of-a-kind who will be hard to duplicate. What amazes me the most is he’s 38 years old playing like he’s 23. Very few players made it to 20 seasons. LeBron, on the other hand, is in his 20th season as we speak playing like he has 10 more in him.

What has LeBron James new record setting milestone taught me during this Black History Month of 2023? The answer comes in the form of a question. It is what are you willing to sacrifice to achieve greatness in your career, hobby, passion, etc.? You see most of us talk about it but never put in the effort to get started while some of us live in it but don’t have the discipline to get to the next level. Others have luck with little effort and plenty of representation while the remainder actually master their craft.

I have been following LeBron’s career for some time now. What he does during the offseason in preparation for the upcoming season proves why he reaps the benefits of his labor. Luck, namesake, and representation has little to do with how he made it to number 1. I see persistence, discipline, knowledge, understanding, purpose, and evolution in his possession.

This milestone has taught me no obstacle is impossible to conquer when you have the drive to succeed. Despite the odds, we can achieve the impossible whether it happens in our youth or old age. Sometimes we have to make moves that better our chances for success in this life.

Another lesson I have learned from this milestone is failure is inevitable, but no matter how many times we lose to it, we get back up and keep trying until something good happens. With each failure, we must learn and evolve. And even after victory, we keep going to setting new records for the next generation to witness. We know our limits and work with them to reach the ultimate goal of success. Maintaining that tunnel-vision focus that blocks all doubters and critics, how much are we really willing to sacrifice to be the best at what we do?

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2022 Blog Blogging Christian Faith Happy Holidays Healing Health Lifestyle New Year New Year Resolution Thoughts Year in Review

A Think Piece on Sunday #5: My 2023 Prayer for You

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

Written By: Preston Thompson

First, Happy New Year!

2022 is over and our New Year’s resolution did not go as planned. It started out well with hope, ambition, and determination, but somewhere in the year those traits gradually decline. Before we knew it, the 2022 Holiday Season was here while our resolutions from the beginning of the year never got out of the first steps. No big deal! 2022 was not our year, but 2023 will be!

Year after year we set New Year’s Resolution to better our lives. This year will be the year we lose weight, eat better, exercise more, get those numbers down at the annual physical, find a better job, get a promotion, start a business, start a side hustle, be a better person, improve our mental health, work on clearing debt, the list goes on. From there, once we accomplish our resolutions for the year it hopefully becomes a lifestyle.

Like the average person who have real lives, we started strong in January 2022. By Spring 2022, we began to drop out one by one. We became good at our resolutions when the first results were good, but when the results became consistent our efforts began to decrease. What happened? Year after year we get to a certain point within the resolution then stop. What is missing that have us making the same resolution every year only to see little to no improvements in our lives?

Well, it is quite simple. For 2023 I pray you find discipline in your resolution when it gets tougher. I also pray that comfort does not overtake change. Let us talk about it!

Discipline is what separates the achievers from the stragglers. When we set a goal to do something better with our lives, discipline will keep us grounded. It makes us come back repeatedly despite the odds against us in achieving our goals. Discipline will make us study early and often. It reminds us why we chose this resolution and what the end goal will be.

As our resolutions get tougher, the results begin to differ from what they were in the beginning. They become delayed, consistent, and/or diminished. For a discipline person in his or her resolution that means adjusting or working harder to achieve their resolution’s reward. An undisciplined person to their resolution becomes easily intimidated when the resolution does not produce satisfactory results thus becoming submissive to his or her own comfort. This same person is also more likely to give up on their resolution when they receive satisfactory results rather than continuing to make it their new lifestyle. Why is that?

Comfort is easier than change. We can be so comfortable in our lifestyle that it is easy to fall back into it when changes become tough. This is because we know the results of our comfort and know how it makes us feel, comfortable. Even in our New Year’s Resolutions we can achieve our resolutions, and rather than making them a lifestyle, we go back to what has been comfortable throughout our lives. In addition, we can begin a resolution that is a change from what has been comfortably but not beneficial in our lives, become discouraged by the results and go back to comfort.

Whether you are the new year new me, leaving behind the negativity in 2022 and steppin’ on necks all 2023, or New Year’s New Gym Members type of resolution person, I pray you keep going in your resolution all 2023. And if the change becomes the opposition, keep going in your resolution because you could be closer to reaching your 2023 goals. Just know you are not alone on this journey; you have an entire network who wants the best version of you in all of 2023.

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2022 Anniversary Believe black blogger Blog Blogging Getaway Hope Life Motivational Thinking Writing

My Time Away from Blogging

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Written By: Preston A. Thompson

It has been two months since I posted a new blog. Two months since I unintentionally took a leave of absence from what I love to do: writing and blogging.

It just happened, no real explanation to it. Commuting to work every day I thought about my next series of blogs, but never got a chance to sit and write them down. I don’t know, my best guess is life got busier, and writing took a backseat in my mind.

One would think after the success of my last blog “A Think Piece of Sunday #4: If I Told You One of Your Biggest Blessings was a Rejection, Would You Believe Me?” I would post more frequently. Catching the next wave before the wave I was riding settled, but that did not happen. One of the downsides of when your side hustle is not your main hustle, time.

Please note I had no personal issues during my absence. In fact, my time away has been great! Spending it with family and friends, running behind my son, visiting a new city (thank you for a great time, Raleigh and Apex, NC), attending a Lizzo concert with my wife and family in Atlanta, celebrating Halloween with matching family costumes, learning new things, all of this served as a much-needed getaway. Not a getaway from blogging, but a getaway from my normal Monday through Friday. Time used to enjoy other parts of my life.

Although blogging and writing was not included during the last two months, I had it on my mind daily. Now, I am back! The pencil and notebook are here, the laptop is ready, and the brainstorming is forecasted to be strong. My dedication has been revived to a new level. I am excited to share with the world more of my thoughts and perspectives. I still want to see how far I can go with this blogging. Crafting every part of its future success, it’s the ambition in me that drives my passion for writing.

As I close out this quick blog, I want to thank you all for the follow. I am so excited I have 50 subscribers in my first year of blogging, I thank you all. Please feel free to like and comment on any blog post I have. Share with others that you know. And if you like what you see on my site and want to come along on this journey…join The Book of Think Pieces family by subscribing. Have a great Sunday.

Preston T.

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Believe Blessings Christian Faith Healing Hope Lessons Life Motivational Opportunity Perseverance Perspective Positive Strength Sunday Thankful Thinking Thoughts

A Think Piece on Sunday #4: If I Told You One of Your Biggest Blessings was a Rejection, Would You Believe Me?

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Written By:  Preston Thompson

What is a blessing? The best definition I found comes from Vocabulary.com where it defines a blessing as “…a prayer asking for divine protection, or a little gift from the heavens” (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/blessing, 2022). In the Bible (NIV Version) 2 Corinthians 9:8 reads, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

We can never receive enough blessings. Just being alive and well is a blessing we should never take for granted. But what if I told you one of your biggest blessings in life did not come in the form of money, acceptance, or healing, would you believe me? What if I told you one of your biggest blessings once came in the form of rejection? Yes, REJECTION! Let me spell it out…R-E-J-E-C-T-I-O-N.

Rejection is not wanted, but it is a part of our lives just as much as acceptance. No one applies for anything hoping to be rejected. If we knew the outcome would result to this, the odds of us applying would be exceptionally low. Each one of us have been rejected from something in our lives. A relationship, friendship, job offer, promotion, school, anything that helps better our lives. Receiving a rejection often triggers sad and regretful emotions, the feeling of not being good enough especially at the time it happens. It can linger in our mind for days, weeks, months, even years wondering if our worth is qualified to move on to the next level in life. We put our best efforts into getting an acceptance only for rejection to tear our hopes and confidence down.

Take it from me, I have had my fair share of rejections in life even when I needed the acceptance more than the others applying for the same position. Growing up in a hometown where “who you know” had more value on receiving an offer than your skillset and character, I wondered if I had bad luck when it came down to getting offers to better my life and increase my experience. I could not get a job as a teenager despite applying to countless jobs throughout the county, I ran for leadership positions and lost by landslides, not making the cut to join teams to build teamwork experiences, etc. I started to question if I really had what it takes to make it in the corporate world. Then I graduated college only to struggle to find a job during the recession era of America. I had the experience and did everything advised to avoid being unemployed after graduation, but none of that experience helped me during that time. Rejection letter after rejection letter, I began to question if my college degree was worth the years put in since I was not receiving the benefits of earning a degree. I even questioned if I did not do enough in college. Despite the hardship of rejection, it molded me to become a stronger person. I learned valuable life lessons from the experience that high school nor college taught me. I gained skills and character that not only helped me receive a job offer, but also learn how to maintain the blessings from acceptance.

Switching gears here. Rejection can be disguised as a blessing that comes in the form of protection tying in our faith. Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) reads, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This means faith is believing something good will happen although you have no clue if that good will come. If good does not come, then faith will convince you that good will eventually come. It may not come how you envisioned it, but the rejection can protect you from the unseen dangers the acceptance never told you about. It is optimism about the future on overdrive. Protection is minimizing the chances of a tough situation that may cause hardship, hurt, or harm physically, financially, and/or mentally from happening in the future by understanding the dangers of a current event based off evidence in the past.

Like a devasting storm that destroys a town. After the storm does its damage, there is a cold period that follows. A feeling of loss and confusion looms over the town wondering how they can recover after the storm, and what will it take to improve the infrastructure. Suddenly good people come to aid of the town after receiving news of its devastation. Before you know it, the town has rebuilt itself better than before the storm. Should another storm happen, the people are more prepared than before. Rejection works in a similar matter when we take the time after it to heal and learn from it. It hurts at those moments and may leave you feeling lost, confused, and down, but there is an unexplained peace that follows.

That is why we must be very mindful of each acceptance. You ever applied for a job, worthless got the acceptance offer, started working the job and a few months in, the job does not satisfy you as it did when you originally started? At some point the money does not matter because your happiness does not align with the job. You find yourself stressed and angry about your job now that you know the truth about it. Anything that goes wrong on the job amplifies your dissatisfaction. Before you know you are back on the hunt for another job. What happened to that good feeling you had when the acceptance first came?

Sometimes acceptance can be fabricated to lure you into a trap. “Accept this job offer. You will earn a livable wage, have a great work/life balance, work with a wonderful staff, and become a valuable member of this team.” That is all you may read before signing the offer letter but read a little deeper and you may discover what is promised may not be reality. Sadly, you may not discover it until you are working at the job. And that is how acceptance can be. An outsider looks at acceptance as a better opportunity from what they currently have. Acceptance will convince you everything will be better, and you got it because you were the most qualified. If we fail to investigate what we are signing up for, we may miss signs that this acceptance is something you should pass on. Before you know it, your acceptance may cause more hardship than what the opportunity was worth.

I am not encouraging rejection. If offered an opportunity in something you worked hard for, I recommend taking the chance. What I am writing is rejection does not always mean failure or giving up on our dreams. We always see rejection as bad; it can be a blessing in disguise. Remember, a blessing does not always come in the form of money, health, or good fortune. Oftentimes, it comes to use as protection. Not just protection from harm and danger, but protection from unseen dangers that may present itself in the future or even protection for our own wellbeing. Sometimes we take on opportunities when we were not prepared and end up more stressed than before the offer was made. Viewing rejection as “God knows what’s best for us” will save us from opportunities that cause more harm than help and life lessons. Allowing rejection to work in our favor can open doors we never knew we were capable of walking through. The main goal is to not allow rejection to make us feel like we are unworthy to success. We should use it as a learning tool to understand why this opportunity that did not work is good and to learn more about ourselves and what we are capable to manage.

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Blogging Hobby Hope Lessons Milestone Motivational Thankful Work Writing

After 100 Likes

If you haven’t figured it out by now, let me say this again. We love to celebrate milestones here at The Book of Think Pieces no matter how big or small it maybe. It takes courage to share your work with the world, so each milestones builds onto our encouragement. It encourages us to keep blogging, keep promoting our work, don’t give up. That major milestone is coming one day, but for now, let’s celebrate every milestone like we won a championship.

The newest milestone to add to the list is 100 likes! It took a year and almost a month to reach this milestone. With more followers, 20-something blog post, an iPhone, and advertising each blog through social media with no actual page, it’s safe to say this particular milestone means I am doing something right with this blogging.

Most important, I did not reach this milestone on my own. YOU, yes YOU, made this possible. My wife and son who are my inspiration to keep writing. My extended family’s who support me. My friends, coworkers, and subscribers. Thank you all for reading and liking my work.

After 100 likes I believe promoting my work has become easier. At first I had to give myself a “you can do this” pep talk just to share on Facebook. Too focus on the “what ifs” I would often delay sharing when all I needed to do was share and send. I put too much emphasis on writing a caption thinking this would capture my followers attention. Now, after I finish a blog, I keep my captions short with a link. The right people will click and like. And…Twitter played a big part to promoting my work. #Writerslift and #bloggertribe really came through. It helped me network with other bloggers and content creators in return for support of their work.

Still growing, still learning, but most importantly, enjoying the blogging journey. Closing out I encourage all content creators to not get discouraged when your best does not get likes. Keep working hard, and one day you will see your hard work has finally paid off.

Thank you all for the likes,

Preston T.

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Blog Blogging Hope Lessons Milestone Opportunity Perseverance Perspective Positive Sunday Thankful Thinking Work Writing

After 20 Post

Hello readers! I took a little time off from writing to be even closer to my family and friends while working at my primary. June was a month of celebrations for us, so taking a step back from writing blogs happened naturally.

I got this notification a few weeks ago thinking to myself “Me reaching 20 post? Can this be real?” And to answer my own question, yes!

What this new milestone taught me was my writing to posting evolution and producing quality work. When I started this blog I may have been too structured, meaning I only wrote and posted what I planned for. Writing a blog on paper one week, proofreading then typing to posting within a month. Calculating every step from the brainstorm beginning to the post ending only to realize when life happens, it often caused delays. Blog post kept being pushed back to later times in order to satisfy some of life’s demands and failing to meet my own dates more times than what I anticipated. Then more topics to blog about would surface in my brain. Before I knew it, I had all sorts of ideas that remained as thoughts only for some to make it to paper while others never had its title written down.

I noticed most bloggers I follow post at least 3 blogs a month or more, some one a daily or a few a week. I asked myself how can I post more? I cannot make blogging my primary at the moment, but I do want to maintain momentum in writing and catch every open opportunity to enjoy my hobby. I have an audience, no need to sit on blogs if I am trying to grow. That’s when I started to skip physical writing on pencil and paper, and started typing my blogs when I felt this think piece need to get published in a short amount of time. Free of the structured restraints I set myself up for I started to see post published within a week. Then life happens, and those free writings would stay saved on my laptop longer than I originally planned. Some of those writings would later be deleted because I found myself missing the time I wanted to post. The topics only worked for trends, i.e. something that happened during a certain time where if I waited too late to post about it, the world and my audience moved on from what was trending, and I would be posting about it when it’s no longer interesting. Aww, the struggles of juggling different lives while maintaining a little free time for myself is no joke.

Which lead me to an even quicker time of blogging that I call bypass blogging. Yes, bypass blogging (I hope no one else thought of this name although I am sure the majority of writers and bloggers do their work like this). We take our smartphones with us everywhere, right? With family and work time in addition to trying to stay healthy while getting a good night’s sleep I do not always have the time to sit down and write a blog. So when I notice I have a little free time I work on my blogs from my smartphone. I can be on lunch break at work and complete a few paragraphs of a blog, save, and finish later. Or, I can be at home or in another town without having to carry my laptop everywhere. My phone is quick and easy, and the app is there for me to type. I found myself starting a blog, completing, and posting on the same day. Quick and easy, just like how society wants everything to be nowadays. I would bypass pencil and paper just to post a quick blog

What started out as structured, by the book writing-to-blogging evolved into different styles of how to post a blog in a timely manner while living my life. I am still learning as a blogger to improve my craft. I take a free course from time to time to improve my writing skills so I can present quality blogs to this blog site. I even seek inspiration from other bloggers when they post improvement blogs for new and experienced bloggers. If I had it my way then blogging would be pencil to paper, editing to typing, final reading to posting type blogging. The process of writing on paper to publishing means more to me than a quick post. I value the time it takes to create a good quality blog rather than posting a large quantity of blogs

Here’s to 20 post! Whether I started a blog from scratch or created a quick blog in a day, I am proud of the blogs I post. More blogs will be posted in the future. Before I close, I leave this advice to anyone starting out in blogging or doing any type of work. Whether you can create 20 products in a month or a year, work at a pace that will benefit you. Sometimes we look at other’s work and become intimidated when they produce faster than we can. It will cause us to question our own work efficiencies especially when others begin to criticize our work or say we could be more productive at work if we did this better, faster, or work like their top worker. Like a wise co-worker once told me,:

“There will always be someone who works faster than you, and there will always be someone who works slower than you. There will always be someone smarter than you, and there will always be someone not as smart as you. But the most important thing you can control is you, and that’s all that matters.”

What this means is faster and smarter does not equal work proficiency. You can be the fastest worker on the job making the most of your time, and still produce poor results. Or you can be the fastest on the job and still make costly mistakes, and vice versa. Your quality of work has no correlation to the work quantity (volume) you can produce. So, work at a pace that works best for you and focus more on producing good quality work.

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Blogging Family Father's Day Healing

Happy Father’s Day 2022

Written By: Preston Thompson

Better late than never is what they say, so here is my blog post wishing all fathers out there a Happy Father’s Day 2022. To the first-time fathers like myself, I hope your introduction to Father’s Day was one that keeps you looking forward to the day year after year. May you be treated like the king that you are, and your life be filled with the love you deserve as you continue to display that fatherly love to your children. As you continue to adjust to your new lifestyle of fatherhood, continue to learn what it takes to be a great father. Be there for your sons and daughters at all times and be willing to receive fair advice from the fathers who have experience.

To the fathers who have been a parent for some time now, Happy Father’s Day to you as well. Continue to pass wisdom to your children and new fathers who seek your advice. Keep leading by example. I know at times you may not feel like a leader, but just know there is someone out there who watches you and are encouraged by your actions.

And to the fathers who may not have children of their own, but filled the role of father to someone, Happy Father’s Day to you! These great men were called to be fathers without birthing a child of their own and excelled in their role! Stepfathers, uncles, friends, coaches, mentors, etc. just know your fatherly advice did not go unheard. Continue to be the father figure a child need.

To the fathers who are parenting alone on a daily basis, I want to wish you a special Happy Father’s Day. I learn so much from my wife and admit parenting without her can be tough, but these fathers do it with little to no help. I know it has to be hard, but this is a special mission assigned for the toughest fathers out there. You stay strong in the fight and continue to be the father you were called to be. You may not get much acknowledgement from the world for taking this role, but just know I acknowledge you for your efforts! I pray you continue to excel in your role. One day, all that hard work, the sacrifices you made, and time you put into being a single father will pay off. The reward will be worth it when it is all said and done.

Lastly, and this may be tough, but Happy Father’s Day to the fathers who are not in their children’s lives. If you are still alive, I hope you can work your differences out and be the father you were called to be. May you find the peace within you to accept your role and do what you can to rebuild that relationship with your children while on the path to healing.

Thank you all for reading my Father’s Day blog. We at The Book of Think Pieces salute all fathers and hope your day was filled with the love you deserve.

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Anniversary Blog Blogging Hobby Motivational Opportunity Perseverance Writing

The Book of Think Pieces is One Year

As I sit here on this balcony outside of Atlanta, GA at 10:56 am listening to Tony! Toni! Toné! song titled Anniversary, my writing senses began to go off. It’s the absolute perfect moment to write a blog. The temperature outside before 11:00 am is 73. The Sun is shining with plenty of clouds in the sky, no rain in the foreseeable future. Several large trees are standing tall adding shade to where I am sitting. You can hear its leaves sounding from the light breeze that gently sways the trees from left to right. Down below, a row of smaller trees maybe no more than 5 feet tall act as a fence separating the homes from the outside.

This is a blissful moment. I am off work today and vacationing for Memorial Day Weekend. No hustle and bustle from its demands. Just me, my family, my music, laptop and the beautiful weather we are experiencing. The only thing missing right now is a frozen coffee, caramel frozen coffee if we are being specific, and brunch. Not to mention I keep staring at the following image:

As I type this blog from my new iPhone while listening to Apple Music’s Classic R&B radio station, I asked myself, “What will I blog about today?” It needs to be something peaceful and tranquil, something to represent being thankful. It also needs to be something quick before this perfect opportunity closes! So, I went to my WordPress homepage and noticed I missed a notification. I clicked on it to see two or three days ago I missed my one year anniversary of registering my site, The Book of Think Pieces, to WordPress!

Wow! I have officially been a blogger for over a year now! Who would have thought? The planning, time, and effort I put into blogging has been a joy. I would not trade it for the world! Reflecting back over the year of blogging I have come a long way. The cheap notebook with an even cheaper mechanical pencil reminds me of the humble beginnings. The blogs I wrote in that notebook at home and while on breaks at work gives me peace and visions of how successful I am becoming. Yes, I am still growing, learning, taking free courses to perfect my craft. I still have plans to keep blogging because I have so many ideas and stories I want to share through this site. As the views and followers continue to come, I am very thankful for each and everyone of you for being apart of this journey. I wish I could do this full-time, but I love what I do for a living outside of writing just as much. Maybe one day there can be a way to combine the two, who knows!

Seeing this achievement gives me even more inspiration to keep writing and pushing the limits one blog at a time. I thank you all once again for visiting my blog. And as they say on TV…

“Stay tuned! There’s more after to come!”

The end.

Categories
Blog Blogging Covid Family fiction Health Hero Heroes Holidays Hope Lessons Pandemic Perseverance Strength Superhero Superheroes

National Superhero Day

Do you know what today is? It’s National Superhero Day! Ok…I just found out last week from an article on Google that read this is an actual day. Who would have thought? Apparently, it has been an annual holiday for years. But, I’m excited because I am a huge superhero fan! Live action, comic book, animated, video games, etc. I’ve been apart of the fandom since knee high! In honor of the day I am currently at work wearing my Black Panther shirt with black Puma sneakers.

DC, Milestone, Marvel, Image, and other comic books franchises, I support them. My earliest memory of watching a superhero on TV was probably Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman that aired Sunday nights on ABC. Then, I was a FOX Kid dedicating hours of my life after school to its lineup of shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Spiderman, X-Men (I can hear its theme song in my head as I type this), Power Rangers, The Tick, etc. I’ve read different comic books about these superheroes during their abilities to protect the innocent. I watched the Blade trilogy of the late 90s which ultimately saved Marvel and the entire live action superhero movies as a whole. And you don’t even have to ask about the Marvel Cinema Universe, I jumped on the bandwagon when it was just an online rumor.

But, what really makes the Superhero franchises so successful is not just the story, but the villain themselves bring out the best in our favor superheroes and really sell the story being told. Whether the villain is an equal match like Doomsday is to Superman, a force stronger than the mightiest heroes combined like Thanos is to The Avengers, a motivational speaker with an evil mind like The Joker is to Batman, a jealous citizen fighting to overtake the throne like M’Baku is to Black Panther, or superheroes fighting each other like Captain America versus Ironman, the villain adds an extra layer of importance that the superhero must overcome.

Even though this is National Superhero Day, and the day pertains to fictional superheroes with superhuman strength and abilities, or a man/woman who uses SciFi technological suit that enhances his/her abilities to have a fighting chance, we have everyday superheroes who are doing extraordinary things in our real world. The Covid Pandemic, supervillain, has wreaked havoc on our lives for over two years now. Businesses have been destroyed or altered to combat lower wages. Employees watched their income reduced as their jobs have tried to weather the pandemic. With little to no preparation, these same people had to find different means of income just to survive our newly adopted pandemic world. Our schools had to turn to e-learning forcing struggling parents to make tough financial decisions so their children can learn. As we battled with stay-at-home orders and rising then falling then rising again cases on the daily in addition to several variants, we have also battled with increased cases of anxiety and depression from being forced to stay home amongst ourselves. All of this does not include the people who died at the hands of Covid-19 or still has long-standing effects from contracting the virus.

Yet, a team of superheroes worked around the clock taking on a villain they had no prior preparation for. Risking their lives daily they put on their mask, gloves, face shields and uniforms fighting this disease on the frontlines because it has become their duty. Spending time away from their own families for their safety and well-being, these heroes put their superpowers to the ultimate test while suffering mentally. Sometimes successful, but also witnessing lives lost to this virus, our superheroes did whatever they could to put an end to the pandemic urging others to stay vigilant and do their part to help slow the spread. Although these heroes got help with limited resources and increased patient numbers, they wore their capes knowing they are the team this world needs. Some of our superheroes died trying to save others at the hands of the very same virus while the remaining are still working saving lives or hung their capes for good due to the anxiety developed during the fight.

If you don’t know who these superheroes are by now I am talking about the doctors, nurses, and medical staff who risked their lives everyday to cure patients of the Coronavirus. Also, the same healthcare professionals who were forced into working Covid units due to a severe shortage and high volume of patients who really needed saviors. I am talking about the fellow healthcare professionals who had to treat other illnesses and deliver newborns during the pandemic with limited resources and help. The scientist who focused on finding a cure for the coronavirus through vaccination, but kept urging the general public to practice social distancing while they worked on a cure. The teachers who were teaching in-person one week and through e-learning the next while still being subjected to lower salaries and little to no funding for a proper education. The daycare workers who put in extra hours to sanitize their rooms hoping the children they watch don’t become a superspreader. The parents who made sacrifices to their livelihood to meet the demands of parenting during a pandemic. The new parents who missed out on traditional baby showers while giving birth to a baby without the presence of family members. The janitors who worked long hours sanitizing every corner of buildings so workers can feel safe at work. The grocery store employees who encountered people everyday not knowing if they have been exposed to Covid, but kept working to ensure the citizens have food to buy. The essential workers who may not have fought the coronavirus directly, but had to show up to work everyday because work from home was not an option for them.

There are plenty of other superheroes I did not mention, but just know we have everyday superheroes who risked their lives during the pandemic to keep the world we live in going. They walk among us everyday and each have the battle scars to prove it.

Happy Superhero Day 2022