UsernameEmailRegionInterestAOL IMICQ IDYahoo! IDMSN IDJabber

"I know, I know. Were it anyone else, I'd agree with you. Were it anyone else, I'd say that's not a reasonable expectation of anyone, especially a teenager."

He glances down at the 'S' on his t-shirt. "In talking to all of you, hearing the differences in our worlds - in your world, all of you fight as hard as you can against oftentimes overwhelming odds. You battle prejudice, public opinion and the vagaries of your own governments along with supervillains, aliens and the rest. We have the super villains, and sometimes, we have to do everything we can, push ourselves to our utmost - and on this world, there's a phrase that's become popularized for those times we have to do that, and maybe just a little bit more. Specifically 'This is a job for Superman' - those times when nothing else will do. The rest of the time, its not that we struggle with prejudice - we have museums, cities adopt their hometown superhumans, my dad had a permanent invitation to interrupt the UN mid-session if he had anything to say. We struggle not to be seen as living gods."

A momentary pause. "My grandfather was happy to give me the same talk he gave my dad - and my dad passed it on. For us, my father, now me, the problem most days is not inability to do enough. Its worry about doing too much. Its not just the ability to be on the other side of the world in a blink, move mountains, see and hear anything anywhere in a city with no one the wiser - its that anything we do, whether we like it or not, will be looked on and judged. The people who the world believes have earned the 'S' can change the world with the right words, or the wrong ones. And its not fair. It isn't fair of the world to put that much weight on anyone. No one can possibly be expected to live up to that kind of expectation - but my father, God rest his soul, tried every day that I am aware to do so, and when he made mistakes, as everyone does and will, it was never for a lack of effort or trying to do the right thing. And it may not be fair, at any age - but fair or not, earning this symbol, believing myself worthy to wear it is everything I've ever wanted to be, even if I'm still not always sure why."