As children we bought our dads gifts that proudly stated "My Dad Is A Hero" on a mug or a T-shirt. To us, he was our hero because he killed the spiders that found their way into our bedroom, he checked for monsters under our beds, and he protected our family from any harm that could come our way. Then in class our teachers would give us printer paper and markers to write letters to troops overseas telling them that they are heroes. When Halloween rolled around and we were able to dress up in class almost every boy wore Superman, Spiderman, or Batman with fake muscles because if you wanted to be a superhero you needed superpowers, cool weapons, or just be super strong. As children, the word "hero" was tossed at us a lot, thinking about it now the term often reflected a strong male figure who saved and protected lives. Firemen were heroes, lifeguards were heroes, police officers, army men, the list really goes on and on. Now we are older and we hear more and more about everyday heroes. Social media has the ability to spread wonderful stories of random acts of kindness and bravery in everyday life that would otherwise probably go unnoticed. As adults we are also exposed more to popular media; we watch celebrities do acts of charity work, donate enormous amounts of money to their local hospital, and go through extreme transformations. Little girls call Justin Bieber their hero, while others have a very different opinion of the Biebs.

Photos like this circulate around Instagram, Twitter and Facebook trying to convince others who they should believe is a hero and who is not. However, people like that need to take a step back and broaden their perspective to realize that they can both be heroes. What it really takes to be a hero is not the amount of "bad guys" you can stop, it is about so much more.

Heroes inspire. You do not have to be the most lethal sniper in U.S. history or one of the first openly transgender celebrities. Any regular person can inspire either a group of people or even just someone else and be a hero. Direct contact from one person to another is not even needed to inspire others, if a passerby sees someone showing simple kindness then that will inspire them to go throughout their day with the same outlook. Best friends can be heroes by giving their friend advice and inspiring them to break up with the jerk they have been dating. Heroes inspire other people to show compassion in their daily lives and to be their best self.

Heroes save lives. Saving lives could be anything from joining the military to protect our county or spending time with a friend who is suicidal. There are opportunities to save lives every day, by (as corny as it sounds) encouraging a friend to wear a seatbelt because you care about their life, or volunteering at an animal shelter to prevent dogs and cats that don't get adopted from getting euthanized for no reason other than "it's too expensive to keep them around." Even just having an understanding that lives matter and each and every life, no matter how big or small, matters and deserves protection.

Heroes protect. Protecting others is something that heroes value. It is the most basic traits that you see in heroes from Superman to service man/woman. However, protecting people is more than just fighting for our country. Protecting people can be helping those who are less fortunate than yourself. Protecting a friend from a jerk at the bar, going to the soup kitchen in your free time, even offering someone hand sanitizer during cold and flu season to protect them from germs.

Heroes have so many different characteristics and qualities that make them heroes. Just because there may not be seen as a hero to someone, does not mean that they are not a hero to someone else. There is no set in stone definition or criteria of what/who is a hero. Heroes face their fears, overcome challenges, they think of others before themselves, when put in difficult situations they handle it with grace and a level head. A hero does what they can to help others and they live out a life beaming with optimism and positivity. We should not say that someone is not a hero because we do not know what they have done for someone else.