We All Have Heroes That We Watched on Film, But The Real Ones Don’t Wear Capes
Now we have all seen the films and watched the TV shows which depicted our favourite characters eg; Spiderman, X Men, Power Rangers etc, but let’s just stop for a moment and look at some actual real life heroes. In other words the ones that don’t wear capes but rather a uniform instead and who genuinely deserve a mark of gratitude
By that I mean the ones who we barely took much acknowledgement of, basically I am referring to those very individuals who swoop in, metaphorically speaking, yet still help and occasionally save the day
I am in actual fact referring to everyday people like Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Soldiers, Carers. Even our own family members and friends.
A while ago I was at home watching an episode of The One Show and they were doing an item on child adoption, the children in particular had various disabilities and health aliments. Whenever I have spoken about my involvement in Health and Social Care one thing that I have always been told is that it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do what I, and many others, in that profession do.
Over the years, and certainly before I embarked on my work in the field I always looked at others already in that profession as somewhat heroic. Mainly as they pretty seem to do something that not many others would actually consider doing, and no matter just how ‘migration inducing’ it got they just knuckled down and got on with it.
Many even go beyond what is considered to be beyond the call of duty
Now if you are looking at this and wondering why I am comparing Health and Social Care work to heroes then let me tell you why I think of it as such.
One of the main concepts of heroes, apart from saving lives, is that they help give hope to others, inspire others to become a better version of themselves. So on and so forth
This is something that I have long wanted to openly talk about. Go back two years ago just about everyone up and down the country put rainbows in their windows celebrating the bravery and hard work of people on the front line.
And the irony of this is that these people didn’t wear capes
Look at programmes like the Educating… series that they televised on Channel 4. From what I recall seeing there was quite a number of students who either had what many would describe as low self-esteem issues to those who were disruptive. In other words the class room trouble maker but what was even more interesting was that no matter how much the pupils played up the teachers simply never quit and eventually managed to get through to them.
Whenever you look at the medical programmes that they show on the BBC there’s no holding back on what the staff do there either. 24 Hours in A+E, Hospital. Just look at the clips when the staff talk directly to the camera to tell the viewers exactly what they do, how they go about it as well as the ups and downs of what they do. But most importantly, even though it absolutely exhausts them they still soldier on regardless, and quite often with not much regard to what happens to them physically.
Up north you have the docu-series about the police force within the Manchester area. The Force: Manchester. Now I admit that this is something of a guilty pleasure of mine but just check out a single episode and you can see just some of what the cops have to contend with on a weekly basis. Dealing with violent drunks, aggressive individuals who are occasionally under the influence of substance abuse or in the throws of a mental health episode. Now you may not think of them as heroic within that way but on some occasions they’ve got to deal with someone who others are too intimidated to be near
I myself admit that though I don’t have that much respect for all of the force I do admire that it takes a heck of a lot of Dutch courage to deal with even a fraction of what they do.
In fact for any of them be they teachers, Soldiers, ambulance crew, in fact those who bravely face the day when the going gets tough yet just do it regardless. Total respect and are definitely heroes in the eyes of many