Do It Yourself, Hero

I heard you were looking for a hero?

From the moment you wake up, you struggle. You stumble through your fatigue to start the day, scrambling to get ready, hurrying out the door to your class. You take a moment to hear the bustling sounds of public transport whizzing by, too full to accommodate any more passengers. I wish someone would be hero enough to solve traffic in Manila.

The chair you chose to sit on today snapped under your weight— years of neglect piled up like dust on the wooden stool. The projector was too dark, and the fans weren’t working. The classroom was too crowded for you to even understand the lecture, only catching the words “Get ¼ sheet of paper, may quiz tayo!” before the room bursts into a louder conversation. I wish someone would be hero enough to help public schools.

You were looking forward to eating something after school, walking behind campus, where all the street food vendors took stands. You could smell the deep fried goodness from miles away, wafting through the air to tempt the few coins left in your wallet in exchange for a stick. It makes you run faster, only to see the vendors scurrying away. “Bilis, darating na sila!” and “baka mahuli tayo!” echoed as figures came to shoo them away from the property. Your stomach sinks, even gurgling from the lack of food…it feels destructive. I wish someone would be hero enough to fight for these vendors.

Despite the heat of the late afternoon and the ache from your worn-out shoes, you trudged beside the busy road on the way home. All the jeepneys were full, and you couldn’t afford any other ride. From the corner of your eye, you spot a student, just like you, sitting by the road. His face was scrunched up in heavy sobs, his things scattered across the side of the road. His bag seemed to have failed him, causing all of the boy’s items to spill out on the wet concrete. I wish someone would be hero enough to help him out.

You paused when the thought came into your mind for the nth time today. Who would be hero enough? Someone like Superman might be– diving through the sky for those in need. You wondered if Clark Kent ever thought he was hero enough. Did he ever hope that someone else would do the saving for him? You wondered for a moment if Rizal ever thought of that. When Filipinos were suffering under the Spaniards, did he ever wish that someone else would take the burden of sacrifice? Did Macli-ing Dulag wish that someone else would fight against the Chico Dam project, protecting the sacred lands of the Cordilleras? Did Liliosa Hilao ever hope for someone to write the articles for her to speak against Martial Law? 

Or did they all only wish for courage as they sought to do it themselves?

Through the tribulations of life, we wish on every superstition for someone to save us from this unfair reality. This picture-perfect idolization of a hero in your mind; a Filipino who is just and brave— a politician who makes promises too good for his stature, or an internet sensation seeking change. Whoever they may be, you seek the ideals of bayanihan in someone else, relying on them to make changes we can all ride on once they achieve it. The real heroes, the ones who came before and the ones who fight today, are those who forgo wishing and hoping: they take action by themselves. 

To believe in the future of your country, to walk the lines that others do not dare to, to write the words you’d think no one will read, to make the change you want to see in the world. That, in itself, is an act of extraordinary measure. 

As you extend your hand out to the weeping boy, you think: I wish to carry their courage with me forever.

Do it yourself, hero.