Who's Your Superhero?

After watching The Avengers, I decided to watch all the movies dealing with the superheroes again, or if I had not seen them before, I wanted to watch them for the first time. Yesterday, I watched Iron Man. As I was watching this movie (great movie, might I add), I realized that although excellent movies such as The Avengers and Iron Man get us pumped up and ready to be superheroes, there's people out there that are already superheroes in their own way. Today, I want to honor my dad, my own personal superhero. 

I wouldn't be the person that I am today if my dad had not pushed me from the very beginning. I remember when I was a little girl, I didn't have my dad around much so I treasured the moments I had with him. He had a full-time job working at a Philips power plant in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. As if his job didn't take enough of his time, he would go to school at night, hoping to earn his associates degree. Through hard work, my dad eventually earned his associates degree from El Paso Community College, thus being the first in his family to earn a college degree. My dad passed on his values and working ethics to his children; both my brother and I grew up with the expectation that we must earn all As in class. I remember the first time I got a B, just ONE measly B, in my second grade class and I started bawling, afraid of disappointing my dad. As I was earning my As and trying to forget the Bs, my dad kept at it in college. He enrolled in Park University and once again had his nights occupied with school. I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to find my dad hunched over books in the kitchen, studying to earn a degree that would help him better provide for his family. Many long and stressful nights later, he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. 

My dad's hard work has always inspired me to be a hard worker. He stopped pushing me as hard as he did when I was a child, but the damage was already done; I had already learned to expect nothing but the best from myself and to push myself to make my dad proud. His great example led me to graduate with honors from high school and I was accepted to a great university. His work ethic still follows me and I'm still working as hard as I can to make my dad proud. 

It's no surprise my dad is my superhero.