What Does Captain America Mean to Me? 

When people ask me who my favorite superhero is, (which is not often, but still), I always have and always will have an immediate response for them. Captain America. In the last five years since I’ve been watching Marvel movies and reading comics, Captain America has always stood out from the superpowered crowd. My earliest memory of Cap dates back to fifth grade when the third installment of the Captain America trilogy, Captain America: Civil War came to theatres in 2016. Everyone at my lunch table, Marvel fan or not, had to choose a side. Captain America or Iron Man. Most, if not everyone decided to choose Iron Man. Everyone except me. Writing this post makes me think about how much of an icon Cap truly is to me. Without knowing anything about him, I went against my classmates, and I fought for not just a fictional character, but an idea. An idea that you should fight for what you believe in. An idea that you should never back down from protecting your beliefs. From day one I was committed to the idea that is Captain America, and I didn’t even know exactly what he was fighting for considering it was my first watched Marvel movie. Plus, a newly introduced Spider-Man was on Iron Man’s team and as much as I wanted to switch over, I stayed on Cap’s side which showed my true commitment. Usually with any superhero it is the person behind the mask that makes the hero. Steve Rogers, however, is the exception. As good of a person as the fictional character is and was, he makes it clear that being Captain America, that dawning the red, white and blue costume, that wielding the mighty shield, is not about him. It’s about fighting for what’s right, protecting those who can’t protect themselves, and how being a good person and a role model is the best way to live. I hold Captain America’s beliefs everyday and I could only dream of being as good a person as this fictional character ever was. 

“When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world ‘No, You Move.’”