Frank, this was a 2012 college essay assignment to write about a “hero in my life.”  You have my permission to put it on your website.

by D. J.

My hero’s name

is Frank.  He’s not my parent, aunt, uncle, or cousin, and certainly not a celebrity.  He was my counselor.  I call him my best friend.  He inspires me to live a full life.  I love him as if he is one of my own family members.   He saved me from making many stupid decisions that I would’ve made in the past, and he helped me become the person I am today.

I first met Frank in the beginning of my freshman year of high school.  I’ve now known him for about 5 years.  When I started high school, I had a lot of pressure on me.  It was really stressful.  I wasn’t getting good grades, I was very shy, you can’t imagine how shy, and it was very hard for me to fit in or make friends.

My mom saw me getting depressed to the point that she was scared that I would do something stupid to myself.  I was really sad every day.  I would walk through the hallways with my head down, never participating in class or activities.  I just hated myself and thought bad things about myself.   I didn’t care about any of my classes, skipped a lot of school, and thought about dropping out.

I wouldn’t open up to her, so my mom decided to get me a counselor.  For some reason, from the beginning, I really trusted this man that I didn’t even know. Having an older guy to talk to was nice for me because I never had a male figure in my life to look up to.

My first meeting with Frank was at his office in the school, during school. I walked into his office not knowing what to expect from him.  I walked in, looked up, and there was a man with a smiling face who greeted me. I felt like I was in a happy environment.

This made me comfortable to talk about my thoughts and feelings with him. I saw that he is a really funny person and he always knows how to make me laugh. After each meeting I felt more comfortable with him.  Even though he is many years older than me, I realized that we still had a lot in common.

Feeling comfortable with him helped me to open up.  When I opened up, he was able to help me feel better about myself.  Until I felt better about myself, I wasn’t going to care about school.  I got along so good with him that my mother asked him to also see my younger brother.  At one point she said to us, “you better listen to Frank because he’s the closest thing you are going to get to a father.”

During this time something happened that scared me.  During the time that I was learning to feel and think better about myself, but before my grades and attendance improved, I was confronted one day in the hall by an assistant principal.  She was famous for bullying and being mean to students.

She told me that she could see that counseling wasn’t doing me any good because my grades were still bad.  She said that she was going to do something about it.  I was afraid, really afraid that she wouldn’t let me see Frank anymore.

When I told Frank what she said, he said that he would handle it.  He must have because I didn’t hear any more from her.  I was happy to be able to keep seeing him.

He taught me many lessons on how to live life, how to think better of myself, and how to be happy as a person. After meeting with Frank for a while, I did start to improve in school.  I started going to school every day, doing class and home work, and getting better grades.  My perspective of life changed which helped me change my perspective of school.

Frank taught me how to not be so shy, how to make friends, and how to keep my attendance and grades up.  After I stopped being so shy, I met new people who became important in my life.   I became a better and happier person.

Now I look at life as a challenge and I know to never give up, even when I am feeling down.  I always find a way to push myself.  My bond became so much closer to Frank when winter came and my brother and me had no ride to get to school. He picked us up at our house every day, on his way to school, and took us with him to school.

That meant so much for me because he offered to do that when he saw that we were in trouble.  We didn’t ask him to do that.  He just offered and did it.  It was usually too cold to walk and we didn’t have great winter clothes.  He would text us from the parking lot and we would come out to his car.

I don’t think I would have finished high school without him, and he helped me with life in general. In this paper, I call him my hero because he is someone who taught me many lessons and was by my side all these years.

I graduated from high school and now I am doing well in my life, family, relationships, and work.  I still keep in contact with him and keep up with what is happening in our lives.  I know that I’m not the only person that appreciates Frank.  The rest of my family and all the kids he sees also say that they appreciate him too.

I have become a better person and I am still glad that if I need to talk to someone, I can text Frank and he is there for me. I don’t consider Frank my counselor anymore because after all these years of knowing each other, I think of him as my best friend, “my hero”.