My favourite hero once said, "Hey, don't meet your heroes kid".

I wasn't too sure what he meant at the time since I still saw him as an inconquerable image that towered over all his various peers, foes, and unjust government schemes, but yet something about his conviction made this riddle stick in the recess of my malleable mind. So like any other bright-eyed kid I stowed this nugget deep in my mind waiting for it to show itself when the time was right.

Time would pass, as it always does, and much as time does it ate away at all the lies that kept a young boy's bright. Slowly I started to see the hero's armor chip away. One might call it progression: sidekick to rookie to probie to the new kid on the block, and untimely, "old enough to become the villain".

This brings me to where I am now. Stuck between waiting to see myself as the hero trying t inspire the next generation, but also battered enough to spite their go at life.

Maybe the best I can do is pass the wisdom I got all those years ago and plead my students to not, "meet their heroes," in fact, I would add that, "you won't like what you see when we're outside of contract hours".