Travis Martinez

Swoosh! As I swung the broomstick I missed the Horse shaped piñata.
“It’s alright, try again!” Swoosh! I missed again.
“Close! You’ll get this time!”
Whack! As I smash into the broadside of the paper-maché animal its innards of tooth decaying and sugar filled candy fly in all directions as drooling children go into a feeding frenzy over the raining candy.
“Nice shot!” he exclaims as I dive headfirst into the pool of sugar.

He is my hero and his name is Travis. When I was very young, probably six or seven, Travis was way cooler than any super hero. My Uncle Travis and I had enjoyed some of my most favorite childhood memories together. He was my hero because I looked up to him and wanted to emulate his every move.

Now naturally when a child is that age they tend to pick up on everything the see and hear, but I truly wanted to mimic Travis’ every move because he was the most wonderful person to me at that point in my life. This is probably where I obtain my distaste for tomatoes. I would dress like him, watch the same TV shows as him, and even try to talk like him. I did this because I greatly admired him.

Travis would always come and pick me up on the weekends, on his own time, to spend time with me. Sometimes we would just go get a bite to eat or other times we would go on some big adventures to go shooting or camping. I also recall him taking out to get pets. This always made my Mom kind of mad but she always eventually got over it. Who knows how many different 10-cent goldfish we went through. One time we even got a pair of hamsters, one for me, and the other for my sister.

Whenever he would do any of these things for me it would make my world a better place, thus making him my own personal hero. I could never see it when I was a young child but now with a hectic schedule of my own I see how much he sacrificed to spend his time with me. He was in a way an older brother to me (being the oldest I naturally have none). He was a role model and someone that inspired me. I guess one could say that this is the real definition of a hero, someone that is admired by others and is a positive influence on others to do good things.

Travis was truly a hero of mine that changed my life and the way I see things and conduct myself. We often confuse the term hero with many other things such as celebrities and other icons that seem to do good. But a hero is nothing more than someone that sets an example for others to do beneficial things in the world and a person that others emulate, even in the smallest ways.