What's the most heroic thing you've ever done?

[joes28]

15 tackles for loss in 1995 when I made all-county defensive lineman.

[microbet]

Another one that was probably less heroic in that there was less danger, but injury was certain.

I was holding my kid who was probably less than 1 year old at the time. Another kid who was about 2 or 3 walked in front of me. If you have kids and are around them a lot you might recognize this spot. You can't see right in front of your feet because your kid is blocking the way.

I don't notice the kid in front of me until I start to bump into him. At this point I have 3 choices flashing before my mind quickly. I can kick the 2 year old out of the way. I can drop my kid on the concrete. Or, I can fall myself while holding my kid and not doing anything to break my fall. So, I just fell on my elbow so hard on the bare smooth concrete that it bled through my sweatshirt. I didn't go to the doctor, but it hurt for long enough that it might have had a small fracture.

It was not just an instictive reaction. It was like slow motion and I knew exactly what was happening.

[eviljeff]

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I haven't done anything heroic

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DUDE ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

edit: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...ue#Post11007558

[chesspain]

Durning my junior year at the State University of New York at Albany, I decide one weekend to take a bus trip home. As I climb onto the Greyhound bus on this crisp, autumn Friday, I notice there are at least a score of people already on the bus, since it begin its route in Rochester and stopped in a bunch of little towns along the way.

Of course, I sit down next to a cute, thin blond girl in a high school team jacket, who looked to be about seventeen. I begin making small talk, hoping that this country girl is less adept at smelling Kosher b.s. than the JAPpy girls from whom I was taking a weekend break.

Within about thirty minutes, however, she acknowledges that she ran away from home that morning, and was planning to visit a friend who "I think lives somewhere in Manhatten." As the bus continued on its now non-stop trip down to NYC, I attempted to earn her trust, with my altruistic side beginning to crowd out the lascivious side, as I'm starting to get visions of this girl six months into the future, turning tricks in Times Square (this was still the early 80s).

Soon after we arrived at the Port Authority bus terminal, she calls a friend back home on a pay phone, and is giggling about this trip as if she was bragging about doing something trivial and juvenile, like cutting class to go smoke a cigarette. After she ends this first call, she then calls Information, and can get no listing for her friend who supposedly lives in the city. She then mentions that she is getting hungry, so I decide to bring her to McDonalds for lunch.

I buy her a cheeseburger, and as she is hungrily wolfing down the burger, I ask her if she enjoyed it. She nods in agreement, after which I say "Good, because chances are if you stay here you'll be grateful when you do get to eat this well."

She then gets a sort of funny, scared, scrunched up look on her face, and swallows her last bite with an almost cartoon-like gulp. I then suggest that maybe she should return home, to which she replies that she only has $20, and no return ticket. I offer to give her my return voucher, and walk her to the platform marked "Albany and points West."

I wait with her, in order to insure that she actually gets on the bus. As she steps into the bus, we exchange a gentle kiss, and I soon am waiving good-bye as the bus pulls out.

Approximately one month later, I receive a gushing thank you letter from her, along with a personal check from her dad for the bus amount. We exchange a couple of letters over the next few montha, which soon dwindled to yearly Christmas cards for the next five years or so, after which I never heard from her again.

It was soon after that encounter I ended up changing my post-graduate plans from law to clinical psychology.

[sirtimo]

When I was 6 and my little brother was 4 we were fishing on a dock at a local state park. He walked right off the end of the dock because he was watching his line and not where he was going. I just jumped right in after him and grabbed him and held on to the beam of the dock. My mom and dad, who were on the shore where we were picnicking, came running franticly down to save us. Mom ended up jumping in the water just as we wer starting to climb out but my dad slipped on the wet dock and broke his arm on the way to us.

[keepitreal]

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I think his point was that it shouldn't be considered "heroic" if nothing is at risk. The guy with the bat could've gotten killed. By trying to help your friend, although admirable, you didn't really risk anything.

(Maybe that's not what he was going for, but that's how I interpreted it)

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i sort of agree with this point. in my case i jumped into a river and almost got f'ed by a boat engine so i had some risk (but not the point) but saving a baby from getting hit by a car still seems heroic to me (although i guess there is risk there).

ps- all this heroes talk is getting my excited for tv tonight.

[KotOD]

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I think his point was that it shouldn't be considered "heroic" if nothing is at risk. The guy with the bat could've gotten killed. By trying to help your friend, although admirable, you didn't really risk anything.

(Maybe that's not what he was going for, but that's how I interpreted it)

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That's pretty much it.

keepitreal: My dad and I did CPR on my not able to be saved grandmother for about 20 minutes before EMTs got there. My grandfather called at 5 AM and said she collapsed. We rushed there and started CPR. I don't consider that heroic - it was instinct to try and save someone. It's a wonderful instinct that humans have (saving our own species is what separates us from the animals), but every attempt at a rescue isn't heroism.

Putting yourself in direct harm's way to save another -- that's a whole different thing. There is a decision there that is made in a split-second to do something with the possibility of ending your own life, and some people have it - others don't. The skinhead crusher had it. The guy riding around on hoods was not a hero, he was drunk.

[ikestoys]

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I quit using petroleum.

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No you didn't.

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But he takes the bus!

[wisehandpoker]

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I think his point was that it shouldn't be considered "heroic" if nothing is at risk. The guy with the bat could've gotten killed. By trying to help your friend, although admirable, you didn't really risk anything.

(Maybe that's not what he was going for, but that's how I interpreted it)

[/ QUOTE ]

That's pretty much it.

keepitreal: My dad and I did CPR on my not able to be saved grandmother for about 20 minutes before EMTs got there. My grandfather called at 5 AM and said she collapsed. We rushed there and started CPR. I don't consider that heroic - it was instinct to try and save someone. It's a wonderful instinct that humans have (saving our own species is what separates us from the animals), but every attempt at a rescue isn't heroism.

Putting yourself in direct harm's way to save another -- that's a whole different thing. There is a decision there that is made in a split-second to do something with the possibility of ending your own life, and some people have it - others don't. The skinhead crusher had it. The guy riding around on hoods was not a hero, he was drunk.

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He acted while others were too afraid or confused. Strikes me as heroic.

[skunkworks]

RainDog,

Jesus. I'm from Calabasas, so it sounds like you ran into some Lost Hills Sheriff's Station a-holes. Great story.