My Hero Mission
My name is Alexs Thompson and I’m passionate about sharing my adventurous life story. Every so often, when I feel comfortable talking about the places I’ve been and the things I’ve done, it resonates with someone and they pick up a spark that inspires them to live the best possible life they can. Running around the world like a crazy man doesn’t appeal to everyone, but when I connect with someone, it’s usually a powerful experience.
Watching others pick up a spark motivated me to write a book about the life I’ve lived—thus far. It doesn’t capture everything I’ve done, but it is a story of triumph in the face of trauma. Time and again you’ll see how I managed to create success when the world around me expected failure. This blog is a way for me to capture my thoughts and hopefully inspire others to become the hero of their life story.
I find myself talking a lot about heroes because the word instantly brings up clear images, ideas, and dreams. Heroes of all types have been a part of our lives since we were children. Whether fantastical superheroes, firefighters, or our parents. Heroes have certainly changed the course of my life and the most important thing I learned was that I needed to be my own hero. In moments when we are protected by heroes, we are able to step out into an unknown future; but when we can’t find others to walk with us, we have to muster the courage to become our own hero.
That’s my story and it led me to share This Hero Life.
In this blog, I’d like to share parts of my book with you as a way of encouraging you to think about the hero within. Here’s the first installment: a moment when I created one of the most important missions in my life.
Two weeks after I landed in Boulder, the Twin Towers were destroyed.
It was my first semester of graduate school and I hopped out of bed to the sound of someone banging on my door. I was pissed off until I saw my roommate breathing and pointing erratically,
“Did you see what they did?”
“Who?”
He didn’t respond, but pointed towards the living room. We bounded up the stairs to the living room and stood there as the First Tower collapsed. The reporters were trying to calculate how many people were in there. Hundreds? Thousands? My head started spinning and I collapsed on the couch while the Second Tower fell. We just sat there in silence until we couldn’t take any more of the commentary. I kept asking myself over and over,
“Who did this? Who are they?”
I couldn’t imagine who could be capable of such a horrible act. None of my readings about Sinn Fein or the genocide in Rwanda helped me make sense of those two buildings falling to the ground.
My first class of the day was with my advisor and I could only stare at him blankly as he taught us about the earliest religious movements in America. It was only two hours after I watched those horrid images and I was still unable to put words to my emotions. As soon as class ended, he pulled me aside,
“I noticed that you seemed distracted during class, did you see what happened in New York?”
“Uhhh….yessir.”
“Are you OK?”
“I’m…..I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Yes. I’m fine, thank you.”
As I tried to make my way home, I sat down on one of the benches in Norlin Quadrangle and started scribbling in my notebook. I needed to find a way to express what I was feeling, but the words escaped me. Eventually, I was just tracing circles over and over until I had a flash of revelation. I didn't know where it came from, but it was clear and inspiring,
“This is exactly why you’re studying religion!”
It was as real as anything that had ever happened in my life and I knew I had to map out a new future. When I wrote my application to CU-Boulder I said that I wanted to use the principles of meditation to help prevent international conflicts and now I had a specific mission. I rushed home and turned on the TV. The more I watched the news, the more I learned who they were.
The people me and my roommate knew nothing about were Muslims from the Middle East and by the next day I had devoted my life to studying Islam. Within a week I was carrying an Arabic language book everywhere I went and started looking for schools to get a Ph.D. in Islam since CU didn’t have one. Within a week I had changed course and redefined the direction of my life. I knew I was supposed to run towards a new future, but it wasn’t until a few months later that the next phase was revealed to me.