We all need heroes to look up to. Certainly childhood heroes, those who inspire children to actually go out and do their very best. But take a look at the list below...

2005 - Rosa Parks †

2009 - Michael Jackson †

2011 - Frank Buckles (last surviving American WW1 soldier) †

2011 - Steve Jobs †

2012 - Whitney Houston †

2012 - Neil Armstrong †

2014 - Shirley Temple †

2016 - Muhammad Ali †

Is early in this century the era of when our previous generation's heroes are dying off? It seems like a "The Incredibles" situation, except no one's actively trying to kill them. They just die because...well, they just do.

Look, I looked up to people like Steve Jobs and Muhammad Ali when I was younger, and I'm a millennial. I didn't have many contemporary idols growing up. So we go from Whitney Houston and Neil Armstrong to...Britney Spears and Lebron James? Seriously? I guess that these are the heroes that the young ones today are going to have to learn from.

Okay, you got me. I know that there are immoral things that previous icons had done, and I know there are some decent icons living today, but it's like that scene in Ratatouille where Remy grows up watching his idol Chef Gusteau cooking, and then one day he dies. It's like past is now finally set, and we gotta deal with the future. Not to mention that there's no way I can ever meet them at this point. A coming-of-age feeling, something that scares me.

But of course, optimists will say that this opens to path for a new generation of heroes, ones that our kids can look up to. Well, maybe we can be one of them. The only problem is that it seems that we pay more attention to literal "superheroes" if this whole era of superhero films tells you anything. Maybe we can't be Batman, but we can learn from both fictional and past and present heroes and be the one who is able to have someone write about us one day.