My creative writing project is more of an experiment than anything. It isn’t a drawing or pictures of starving kids in Africa crying for help but the man sitting there videotaping him won’t. No collages or abstract art. A single piece of paper couldn’t describe my idea of diversity, hope, or faith. To many people, a single page is enough to express their views on almost anything. To me diversity is so much more than the difference of skin color, or where you’re from. To me diversity is the difference between every person and the life that they live. Who they are, what they do, and most importantly, what they want, or want to do. Diversity is also split up to levels of capability. Just because someone loses their legs doesn’t mean that they can’t be as much of a hero as Hussain Bolt. A person’s success is determined by their ability in their own league. It wouldn’t be fair to have your kid’s little league team play the Boston Red Sox, now would it?

For an average person running a mile is no amazing feat. For someone who has suffered a stroke or been crippled somehow, running at all is a huge feat. Some particularly touching stories are what give many people hope. Lance Armstrong and testicular cancer, Chris Herren and his substance abuse, Teddy Bruschi and his nearly career ending stroke, and Tim O’Brien for surviving Nam to paint the horrifying pictures of war for us all today, are all modern heroes in their own sense.

Before getting into this though, you must ask yourself, “What is a hero?” To some it is a person wearing a cape and mask fighting crime while to others a hero is the one that gives them hope. Hope itself is such a diverse word. It can mean hope to survive, thrive, or hope to accomplish your goals, even all three in some cases. Hope is just as diverse as the people who carry it. It is whatever you want it to be. A person can only accomplish as far as they can dream. If you can’t dream then you can’t accomplish, no matter how difficult or easy the task may be. If you hope you have time to watch a movie tomorrow or you hope to play professional football you can only achieve what your mind is capable of processing. You will only go as far as your mind will take you in life because once your mind says” good enough”, that is where it will stay. If you don’t believe in yourself to even bring yourself to attempt something then right there is the proof that you wouldn’t have made it. What someone can accomplish is only limited by how bad they want something. If they want it bad enough to make it happen than in my eyes that person is a hero. They may only be a hero in their own world, but none the less a hero all the same.

Nobody who is actually a hero looks at themselves as a hero. They don’t do the things that they do for attention or a reward of any sort. They do them because it is the right thing to do. They fight because they have a life to live, or they strive to become the best. They don’t live to fight or become the best for fame. They do those things because they are goals or dreams. They do them not only to benefit themselves but others as well. Anyone can be a hero. A hero is anyone whose goal is to help other people. A true hero is successful in doing so. A true hero not only achieves these goals but inspires others to do the same. In my eyes anyone who can change a single person’s life is a true hero.

A superhero in the movies saves lives by fighting evil and wrongdoings. Real heroes do the same exact thing. They may not always save a life, literally, but if they help or inspire someone to help themselves or to keep fighting for happiness then they have saved a life. Firefighters and police officers risk their lives every day, literally, and are heroes to many and for the same kind of paycheck as you and me(Well, much more than me, but you get the picture).

Tim O’Brien, in a way, is a hero to me because he played a big role in inspiring me to write. The way he wrote The Things They Carried was amazing. He had so much power behind the words in that book. If it weren’t for him, who knows where my life would be going? I could be in jail today if it weren’t for him. (But that’s a different story). It inspired me to write beautiful words that so many great minds have before me. Every great author was a ‘nobody’ at some point in time. They were young with a dream just like me. He is a hero to me and he will never know it. I want to be a hero someday and never know it. I want my thoughts to saturate people’s minds. I want them to affect them. I want my words to inspire anyone with a dream to chase it, whether they succeed or fail, because they will never regret trying.

Diversity is what sets every person, animal, and book aside from each other. Diversity is the reason the world is how it is today. Diversity is the reason why communism is nothing more than a dream. As long as there are people there will always be dreams. There will also be people who are obstacles to those dreams, but it is only because of diversity we are privileged to live in a free country and strive to overcome your obstacles. Most importantly, diversity is what makes me, me and you, you. Without diversity, we’d be cells that roamed the earth.

The Beautiful Words is my contribution to the thriving world of literature. It is my way of leaving my impact on the world. It is the only way I can see myself living my life. I want to write stories that people will relate to and gain from like I have. After writing this I realize maybe the beautiful words are not only the words I write but more importantly the words I’ve read that inspired me and guided me to where I am today. I love to write and whether my book gets published or not I will write for the rest of my life until either arthritis takes me down (but who knows these day’s with advances in the medical field) or I go senile. Up until then though, I will keep writing and reading the beautiful words of life; the beautiful words of beautiful minds. One day I hope someone will finish reading my book, close it and be left in thought about what they just read. I want the whole story to process in their mind as if they had lived it. I want them to remember my stories when nothing seems to be going right. I want to create something like no other, something that is me. Something that is great.

Like Siddhartha I am on my path to enlightenment. I am hungry for knowledge and I am never full. I want to learn about the world, the people who inhabit it, the past, the future, and explore the possibilities of the impossible. I want to become the best that I can because I know that I have the potential to become the best there ever was. Best there ever was at what? I’m not sure yet. Only time will tell. The one thing I am guaranteed, thanks to diversity, is that I will always be the best me. There may be some people similar but none that are same. I am me. Nobody can change that. I can change who “me” is but never who I am. I am Zack H. Who Zack H. is, is all in my hands and my mind.

Who I will be is in my heart.