Juliet Aliga Research Paper

Keith D. Aliga
BSN 403

There are many other definitions of what a hero may be. Some may say heroes are noted for their "feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life”. Some may often see them as mythological legends, "endowed with great courage and strength, and celebrated for their bold exploits." In my own point of view, a hero can be anyone whom you could relate to and whom you admire the most. And she is not found in a comic book or in the TV, she is found right here inside of me, whose flesh and blood flows within me. Who could this hero be? Precisely, it is the woman behind who I am today, my mom, Juliet Aliga. She is the most amazing person I’ve ever had in my
life besides my father of course. I have always looked up to my mom from as far back as I can remember. She has always been there for me through everything possible. She has formed me into the person I am today. Without her help, I honestly believe that I wouldn’t be the strong, focused, caring individual who stands before you. There hasn’t been a time in my life where I was going through a hard time and my mom wasn’t there, guiding me through it. My mom is a very selfless person. She always makes sure other people’s needs are full-filled before hers are. As a matter of fact, she even sacrificed her job here and the chance to be with us every day for our future’s sake. Yes, she works overseas for seven years now and still counting. I was on my freshman year in high school back then when she decided to accept the offer for her to work in an English tutor school in Ontario, Canada. Obviously, that decision of hers was quite hard for her and most especially for us. My mother is a very dedicated and loving teacher. She spent 10 years of her life as a public school teacher, shaping the minds of the youths and molding them into becoming well-driven and more responsible individuals of our society; which is also one of the reasons why she is my hero. She is a model of goodness and righteousness to me, my younger brother and also to her students. She taught us many lessons in life worth pondering; one of it is my favorite, which utters to stand up from what I believe in.
She is a very value driven person, who emphasizes great considerations on tailoring our behaviors. Though she is miles apart, it seems like she’s always at my back, ready to lend a hand or catch my back in times I fail and backing me up again. She make it a point that distance never matters to us, she always finds time in her busy schedule to communicate with us despite the mere fact that we have different time zones. Actually, we get to talk online every night at 9pm about how was my day went and other personal stuffs. It’s great that there is an amazing innovation on our technology today because we also get to see each other’s faces in just a few clicks, making our lives much closer to her. Motivation, focus and perseverance to whatever I aimed is what she also taught me. She always tells us to dream big, aim high, and make it happen. Rest assured that she’ll always help us out in every step of the way. She has great dreams for us; she wanted me to be a promising nurse and my brother to follow my father’s footsteps as a civil engineer. From that, I gain motivations to pursue my degree. She, together with
my father has done enormous sacrifices just for our sake and the only way I know to repay all their struggles is to make their dreams into a reality. She is a mother, willing to do everything for us. Who gives us unconditional love and unending caress. She is not just the light of our family but also, she is the foundation of us. She is my best friend at the same time. We always have these conversations which I prefer to call as heart to heart talks, where I share my profound thoughts about some sort of teenager issues and concerns. Unlike with other mother and daughter relationships, I am more comfortable and open about my secrets to her because she is not the “mom-nags-and-never-understands” type of a mother which means, she is very open minded and she understands always her teenage daughter. She even gives me advices and support to everything I want as long as I know my limitations. About my crushes, my friends, and even my enemies she always very interested to talk about. The funny thing is, she even helps me convince my father whenever I ask permissions and sometimes starts world war III if my father won’t go or do as she says. She is the big boss in short. Indeed, mothers have a heart of marshmallows for she’ll always open to considerations and will always take our sides regardless of the situations. Just because she worked overseas to supplement our father in providing us a better future, she is also much easier to convince than my dad that even sometimes defeats the ground rules set by my father. Sincerely, I have nothing more to ask for in a mother because I already have the best. She is a remarkable teacher and a mother her children can be proud of. So I salute all the teachers in the world, for behind every successful man, be it the president, the diplomats, and so on and so forth is the teacher who shared her knowledge and inculcated them the wisdom who fueled and geared them up to who they are today. As also what Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher, “Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.” That was my mother’s favorite line on her favorite letter. Being a hero is a bearer of heroic acts, so marvelous and astonishing that other individuals cannot. So teachers, the prime makers for every successful individuals and who promulgate literacy to the society are considered for me as heroes and my mother, in her own precious ways, is my personal hero.