People who take chances
Paving way for freedom’s song
Not happy just to idle by
When sorrows seem so strong

If we’re all created equal
Then everyone should live as free
If people never took a chance
What would that mean to you and me?

© Marsha Brown

I love the fact that some people are not afraid to take a chance to change history, the make sure that we aren’t just happy with the way things are.

Joan of Arc, a national hero in France, led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. She believed that it was her divine mission to free her country from the English. She cut her hair, dressed in a man’s uniform, and led French troops to victory in the battle of Orleans in 1429. She did whatever it took to free her country, she took a chance.

Freda Kahlo, a Mexican artist who survived childhood polio and later a bus accident that led to seven operations. She began painting to escape her lifelong pain. Even though not everyone understood her work completely, she painted what she felt and was later considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

Harriet Tubman, born a slave, but eventually became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad — a system developed by a secret group of free blacks and sympathetic whites to help runaway slaves get to free northern states. Harriet Tubman led more than 300 slaves to freedom.

Orville and Wilber Wright, two brothers who knew they could fly! Orville wrote of his childhood: “We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity.” They were not afraid to take chances and this is what led to the very first airplane in 1903. Now we can fly because they believed it could happen first and made it happen.

All throughout history there are stories of people who look at their surroundings and say, “I don’t think this is the only way” or perhaps, “I know a better way!” They looked fear or defeat in the eye and kept trying, kept pushing until they made something amazing happen.

When you believe in something enough to take a chance to make it happen, the passion you feel will be the fuel that keeps you going until you accomplish your dream.
A true hero shapes history and changes the world for others around them. They are the voice of the weak and the strong.

A hero makes a difference in the lives of the people around him. People are changed just by knowing them.

Don’t be afraid to take chances and to live your dream, find your destiny and change the world.

William Jennings Bryan a congressman from the 1860’s once said, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

What would happen to the world we live in, if every single person made it their mission to make a difference?