Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt, from www.WhiteHouse.gov

What exactly makes someone a hero, you might ask? To me, a hero is someone you can look up to and, by following her example, you can make a positive difference in someone else’s life or in your own life. A hero to me needs to be smart, loving, patient, compassionate, and always open to other people’s feelings. These are just some traits that, to me, make up a great hero.

That’s why I chose two great people, one of the past and one of the present, to be my heroes.

For my hero of the past, I chose Eleanor Roosevelt, who was very influential in her time and still is today to many women everywhere. For the hero of the today, I choose my dad, Michael Yannucci. Not everyone might know him, but he is someone who inspires me to do my best always.

My dad to me had a positive influence on me. He is always open to my thoughts and is always very patient with me. I know I can count on him when I need help in my everyday life, and when I talk to him, he is always open to my thoughts and feelings, no matter how mad I am or no matter how much I yell. I can confide anything to my dad. I love spending quality time with him because I can relate with him and he is also very funny. I know I can be myself with my dad when I’m with him. He also makes me feel good about myself. My dad is the best dad anyone could have. He’s one of my best friends and I wouldn’t trade him for any other dad in the world.

I chose Eleanor Roosevelt as my hero of the past because she was, and still is, a very powerful woman in society. She was the devoted wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but she earned her own fame through her humanitarian work. Mrs. Roosevelt also helped her husband when he was stricken with polio in 1921 by making fact-finding trips around the world when he was governor and then president of the United States. She also wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. Mrs. Roosevelt was also a civil right activist. She was a woman ahead of her time: loving, wise, warm, sincere, kind, strong, very human, a person who used her talents and her position to make a positive social change in America.

I wish I had known Eleanor Roosevelt, not only because she was famous, but because she had so much to teach the world. To me, she is the most genuine woman of her time.

The reason I chose my dad and Eleanor Roosevelt as my two heroes is because both of them make me want to make a positive difference, whether it’s for myself, classmates, or community. I think that a hero is someone who influences other people to follow their good doings.