Natalia Makarova and Athanasia Lakos

Heroes are people who push themselves to their personal best and keep on going, not just to prove to others that they can, but to be sure with themselves. If I was to think of someone as a hero, I would have to know what their main achievements were and why they are thought of as a hero. A hero is someone who does something important for others. To be a hero, you have to accomplish something from which you and other people will benefit.

Natalia Makarova is a hero to me because she was an inspiration when I was contemplating quitting ballet. She helped me through it because when I saw her or watched her dance, I could see what I was aiming for. She gave me the will to succeed. As a dancer, she has grace and talent, and as a person, most, and best of all, she has faith in herself. That is important because, without faith and self-confidence, you aren’t complete. You can’t be a good, smart, and strong person without believing in yourself. Natalia Makarova is an entertaining hero. She is not just a hero because she has filled my mind with her beauty, but because she is beautiful to all dancers and those who are entertained by dancers. I have explored the worlds of many famous people, and only her world was interesting, exciting and appealing enough for my “good taste”. She is a hero and an idol.

My great-grandmother, Athanasia Lakos, is an unsung hero, meaning that she isn’t renowned by others, just her family. I think of her as a hero because when she was 20, she left her home of Greece and traveled across the ocean to America to marry a man she had never met or heard of in her life. To me, this is bravery and faith, because she was committing her life and her freedom to this man. Also, her mother would not give her a dowry because she was defying her by marrying this man. She is a hero who is brave, confident, and yet stubborn. She was also the only girl in her town to graduate the eight grade, back then, girls didn’t get proper schooling. Even though she never had a job to support a family or share her knowledge with others, she did teach her own children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren a lot. When she passed away last January, I spent a lot of time thinking about her achievements. She is very special and in my lifetime, she taught me a lot of valuable lessons and I learned a lot of important information about life from her. She lived a long life and after all of the excitement, fear, and joy was over, I believe that she was still happy. After all, she gave a lot of people her happiness.

Though these two people, Natalia Makarova and Athanasia Lakos, had completely different lives, they went through a lot of the same difficult times. They both taught me many things about life, even though I never met Natalia Makarova. I hope that someday I will, I have a lot of questions for her. Though I already asked my great-grandmother her life questions, it would be nice to just sit down and go over them again. Because I can’t, maybe I’ll get the chance to answer questions asked by my grandchildren, if they think I’m a hero. Someday, maybe I will be.