I've been wondering what it feels like to be a superhero. My question is: Beneath this greatness, can a superhero
break?
What happens when every day, you live your life in efforts to constantly save other people? You work hard in doing what you think you do best. But what happens when things backfire? What happens when you fail? What happens when the superhero slips up and her fear of bringing people down with her is at risk of coming true? What happens when beneath the superpowers and earnest effort to be the best superhero she can be, she realises that she almost forgets
that she is human.
And because this job has grown on her and the people around her, it becomes a setback, maybe even a surprise, at moments when her human side flickers in her actions--the superhero takes a break, sleeps in, gets there a minute late, falls,
fails.
I wish I could give that superhero a hug and tell her that I am here. I know how it feels to work so hard and put all your heart and even more into being a better superhero and come back at the end of a tiring day to a world that sometimes acts like nothing's changed, that doesn't see everything behind what you've done, why and how you do what you do. The superhero needs to know that I understand that her discovery of her superpowers and her compulsion to share it with the world was what made her think that she could do this. And I would say, she was and is right. But I want to remind her that just because she is a superhero, it doesn't mean she has to forget to
save herself.
It doesn't mean that the superhero isn't entitled to have feelings of her own even if they may be unpopular ones like sadness, anger, frustration, and dissatisfaction. And to know that having superpowers doesn't mean being invincible to the unpredictable, difficult, and gravely fleeting nature of life--you cannot control everything in your path.
Dear superhero,
It's tough, I know--wrestling from taking the easy way out and just throwing down that red cape forever. But every day, you choose not to. Remember that you can be a superhero but sometimes, you are allowed to
be human too. I know
because I am just like you.
