Heroes. We talk about them every day. Saving people from burning buildings, taking bullets for others, but what truly does it take to be a hero? To be a hero, you have to make a difference, a significant difference. You have to take action and make a change. Heroes are what I believe in. When I think heroes, there is one person that comes to mind.

Last December my brother, Mac was diagnosed with a kidney obstruction that created kidney stones. I remember the day we found out perfectly. It was a completely normal Friday, and I was outside ready to get picked up from school. I saw my dad pulling up in the jeep to pick up my sister and me. We got in the car and were told Mac was in the hospital. We were very confused, and my dad explained Mac’s situation on the way there.

When we arrived, we instantly knew that Mac was not himself. Our normal trickster at the dinner table was lying in a hospital bed just staring off into space. He was on a Morphine pump to suppress the pain, but the pain was too great.

This kidney obstruction required multiple surgeries and could have been life-threatening. But the hero of this story is not my brother. It is a boy he met in the hospital that changed this story and changed my views of humanity.

During the recovery period after one of Mac’s surgeries we were all sitting around Mac in his hospital room. There was a curtain dividing the room, and there was another boy on the other side. All we knew about this other boy was that he had been ejected from a car in an accident.

This boy, no older than 16, had every bone in his body broken. His mother was in another hospital hours away. He had just been involved in a near fatal experience and had no one. He had no one there to care for him, no one to dry his tears, no one. The only object he had in his possession was a balloon that a hospital worker had given him out of sympathy.

From across the room, he heard Mac being as brave as he could, talking to his nurse, fighting back tears, and the boy was overcome with selflessness. We heard from the other side of the room, “Nurse, would you give this balloon to that brave boy?” He decided to give the one item he had in his possession to a five-year-old boy he had never even seen before. He gave his balloon to a boy he had only heard talk from the opposite side of a hospital curtain. He gave that one lonely balloon in the corner of his room to my brother Mac, simply because he thought it was the right thing to do. Nobody was watching him. He didn’t do it to show what a good person he was; he didn’t do it for his reputation. He was in a place where no one knew his name.

During the series of Mac’s surgeries, it was hard to keep faith in God. I was very doubtful and felt this situation our family was going through was unfair, but that boy taught me something. Seeing that act of genuine selflessness and pure character changed everything for me. It completely opened my eyes and revealed to me a whole other level of humanity.

This heroic act of altruism exposed me to something new. It gave me a new idea. I looked out the window and saw an airplane fly overhead. The people in that plane had no idea what had just happened. It was that sight that defined what a hero is for me. Being a hero is not only being a firefighter or soldier, you do not have to be in the newspaper for your deeds. Being a hero is about changing the world, opening somebody’s eyes, one balloon at a time. These moments gave me something to believe in. I believe in heroes.