With the holiday season upon us, the time has come to pay our respects to the heroes behind the curtains. From parents to friends to strangers who paid it forward, someone has made a difference for the better in your life and this is the season to spread the word. If you're feeling loved, join along and post in your Facebook or Twitter using the #MyGuardian handle. To kick things off, I'll share my own:

#MyGuardians inspire me every day by supporting my dream of inspiring positive change in the world.

With that said, I would like to share a tale about an individual who has made a huge impact on the lives of me and my family. I am an online gamer, hands down. I am not ashamed to admit that I have dedicated a large sum of my free time to play with hundreds of fellow gamers who love playing the same games as me: World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Now World of Warcraft usually inspires a slew of responses, but I would like to focus on the friendships that are forged through years of interaction in the game.

It all started six years ago when I joined a group with a gnome mage by the name of Kramb, a man who had earned a name for himself on the server as one of the loudest, proudest, and funniest guys around.

Now Kramb is an interesting fellow, but I can't mention him without including his wife, Kim. These two are a force to be reckoned with, but most importantly, they care about the individuals they talk to each and every day. One of the things people tend to think when they hear that someone has befriended a person online is that the friendship is fictitious, but this couldn't be further from the truth. The friendship between Kramb, the members of our guild and I were forged not through manipulation or deceit, but through reciprocation of each other's lives. Like any normal friendship, we share laughter, tears, frustrations, and late hours of relentless button mashing as we laid waste to our adversaries.

These friendships have grown stronger over the years, and I'm proud to say I've kept in touch with a majority of the members of our guild even after some of them have left or grown busy with their day-to-day lives. But one friend stands out, one friend stepped forward in my family's time of need, and one friend chose to help us when bills were tight and spirits were low. When my computer broke down as a semester full of online courses began, he and his wife decided to loan me the money to purchase a new one so that I could get back on track (and back in the game!). This friend who had never once seen my face yet spoke to me on average about an hour a day placed suspicions aside to help me out.

I believe in paying respect where it is due and, outside of my parents and family, no one is more deserving of my respect than that hilarious, little gnome by the name of Kramb and his brilliant but deadly wife, Kim.

I have seen our capacity for kindness and have never held more hope for the future then I do now, so please join me in celebrating the many guardians of our lives and the wonderful things they do.