In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.
June 6, 1995
By Devlyn Brooks
Heroes. I had never given much thought to heroes or as to what heroes meant until this weekend.
I mean I had my share of heroes when I was younger. Papa Smurf off the cartoon "Smurfs," Bo and Luke Duke off the "Dukes of Hazard" television show, and Andre Agassi, a professional tennis player, among others.
I even had some heroes as I got into high school still. There was this particular guy named Dustan, who had raised me as a little kid when my mother was at work. He wasn't always the nicest guy to me, giving me snake bites and nuggies -- which is when he would rake his knuckles over my scalp affectionately; however, he did take pretty good care of me. He also happened to be my brother.
Anyway, like I said, I had never given much thought about them until now. In fact, a few years ago, I had pretty much given up all of my heroes because I thought I was too old to have heroes. I thought only "little kids" had heroes. My, was I in for a shock.
It all began this past weekend when I had the opportunity to travel to Bemidji for the day to visit my brother and nephew. Now, I am really close to my brother and especially my nephew since I have had the opportunity to be around Jared most of his four years of living.
Don't get me wrong. I have a number of other nephews and nieces -- even a great-niece and another great-something along the way -- whom I love very much. I just have been attending Bemidji State University for three years, and at one point, even lived with my brother for over a year. So, I've grown accustomed to being a pseudo-father once in a while to Jared.
What better activity does an uncle have to do on a Friday night than babysit his nephew, right?
This is why I am closer to Jared than the rest of my nephews and nieces.
So, when I was visiting Jared this weekend, I was struck with this overwhelming sense of pride when he tagged along by my side all day.
"Go in pool, Dev-in," he would say. His father had just purchased him a new plastic pool. So guess who got to fill it up!
"Dev-in, Dev-in, watch Dev-in," he would excitedly yell when throwing one of the plastic horseshoes in the water. Then he would giggle away in that high-pitched giggle that only Jared can manage.
When I was driving back to Warroad, it hit me with all the subtlety of a Mack truck that I was one of Jared's heroes. How could this have happened? Just yesterday I was the one laying around Saturday mornings watching the "Smurfs" and chowing down sugar-coated cereals. Now, I am the one toweling myself after watching Jared throw the plastic horseshoe into the pool.
I guess what I'm saying is that I had forgotten how important heroes were, and that heroes just don't need to be superstars.
This weekend made me remember that heroes are important because we all try to be like our heroes. Jared reminded me of this as he so rightfully scold me for saying, "naughty words." He would graciously forgive me after I apologized.
So don't forget the importance of heroes, and don't forget that there might be someone around you looking up to you, and you don't even realize it.
I didn't.
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