As the sun sets down over the tall trees in the forest, I look up and think to myself, what do I think a hero is? I look over to my left; that’s where the moonlight catches my shiny, light-blue eye. The moonlight is sparkling down like a crystal waterfall onto a small figure. The figure is a woman, and she’s reading a novel. She’s reading in a way that makes you want to look at her even more. The moonlight makes her hair shine a radiant, bright red.
There’s a slight breeze in the air, making the night a calm and peaceful place. Just like a day at the beach near the fresh cool water; the hot sun that’s burning like a fireplace in the middle of winter, and the hot sand that feels likes it’s baking your feet like an oven that’s baking, sweet, delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Then once you get to the cool water, it feels so refreshing after running so fast across the beach to the shoreline through the baking hot sand. The breeze is turning into a blowing wind. It makes the woman’s hair look like she’s a pop star shining so bright.
At that moment, I realize that she’s my mother. I then think of all the fun times my mother and I had together. I stop and think a little more. Then I answer my question. A hero is someone who is always there for you, someone to turn to when times get rough and bumpy, someone who inspires you to chase after dreams, someone who tells you to never ever give up. All these characteristics show and tell that my mother, Melissa Braunz, is my inspiring hero.


My mom enjoys going for peaceful walks and runs in the early morning. She loves to go to the beach and soak up the hot summer sun. In the winter, she loves to sit next to the toasty warm fire and snuggle up with a good book. My mom has radiant, flowing red hair down to her shoulders. She has bright lime-green eyes that always seem to catch the light just right. Her eyes remind me of tiny green lily pads with pink little flowers right next to them in the middle of a clear lake.
My mother always has a “can do attitude”. In my mind, she resembles the early morning at sunrise. When she wakes me up in the morning, she’s always “up on the sunny side of things”, just as happy as can be. She’s always singing a tune, like the birds and insects getting up in the morning. She’s as bright as the sunshine and as pretty as that big yellow circle full of sparkles in that light up in the sky, along with the blue sky with the birds and the colorful butterflies that fly everywhere.
My mom is important to me because she taught me to never ever give up. Even if it seems impossible to do, or even handle, it’s not. She taught me to keep my head up. My mom taught me to always believe in myself, even if I think I’m wrong; just be strong and have trust in myself. She taught me to listen to my heart; “it will always show a way”. She told me that if I didn’t believe in myself or listen to my heart, I would head into confusion, and sooner or later, failure.

My mother told me that if I ever needed anything, that she would be there for me and help me as much as possible. She told me she would listen to my problems and give me advice. Without my mom, I wouldn’t know how to do any of these things, and I wouldn’t have her to tell my hopes and dreams to. I wouldn’t have her advice when I needed it. I’m so happy I have her to learn from; my mom, my friend, and my hero.

My mother and I have had so many fun and great memories together. One of my favorite memories we had together would be the time we went for a nice autumn walk in my backyard woods. This was about two years ago, when I was eleven years old. When it’s fall time, my backyard looks so beautiful. All the trees are bright red, orange, yellow, and green. It’s really peaceful. My mom and I decided to go for a fall walk in the woods, since it was a beautiful autumn day out. We got our tennis shoes on, our light jackets, and packed a little snack for the both of us. Then we headed out for our journey.
We walked all around the woods. We talked; we laughed, and we walked some more. Then the outside air was getting a little darker and cooler. We knew that we had to get back before dark, because we had no flashlights to see where we were going. When we turned around, we had no idea where we were in the woods. We worked together to get out of the woods before the sunlight turned into darkness. Then we walked back the way we had come. We walked and walked; we talked about what would happen if we didn’t get out before the darkness fell upon us.
It seemed like two hours before we saw a white glimpse of a huge figure. We walked toward the figure. It was on a tall hill with a lot of junk on it. It was very hard to get up the steep hill because it seemed to be covered in booby traps. We helped each other up the hill. The white figure we saw was a big old house. It looked to be about one hundred years old and that someone had been working on the house to make it better. There were a lot of nails, concrete mix that had been open but not used, hammers, boards to put on the back porch, and a lot more. You could look in the windows and see someone was trying to clean up. There were paper towels everywhere; along with Windex, cleaning products, and a mop still in the dirty water, and the sink had a slow drip.
In my head, I was thinking it was like a haunted house, and there was a ghost or something that scared the people away. My mom and I looked at the road, and at that moment, we knew where we were. All we had to do was walk down the street to the right and walk a little way to get to our house. We walk down to our house from the old house, which I called the haunted house. On the walk, we made up ghost stories about that house. When we got home, we laughed about the things we had talked about and what we had seen. Now every time we pass “The Haunted House,” we make up stories and laugh.


I just love spending time with my mom. It’s always so much fun. I would have to say that my mom is one of my very best close friends. She’s always been there for me, no matter what. She’s been there through the sad times, the happy ones, the exciting times, all of it. She has always stood by my side, and I know she always will be there with me and for me.

I’m following in my mother’s footsteps, right, left, and right, left. I’m far away from being right behind her, but I will keep at it until I become just like the woman she is today. I will follow my dreams like my mother did; I will do what I have been taught like my mother did. To become a hero, an inspiration, a mother to my own daughter someday, and a best friend just like my mother is to me, to my own children, in the very far future that is ahead of us. I love my mother dearly. She is most definitely my inspiration, my mother, my hero, and my best friend.