My hero’s name is Todd Phillips. Todd is my uncle. He is 49 years old and was born in Memphis, Tennessee on September 5, 1962. He is the CEO of a major textile company, but he still lives with my grandparents. When my uncle was a kid, he loved to play baseball, football, golf, and go fishing. The first sport he played was baseball because that was my grandfather’s sport. Soon, he got tired of baseball so he started to playing football. After that, he picked up golf. He fell in love with the sport. He was always at tournaments with my grandfather. He stills plays golf a lot and also took up fishing when he was a little older. In his free time he always goes fishing. Now he competes in tournaments with his fishing friends.

My uncle is heroic to me because he never gives up. When he has a problem he won’t give up and works hard until he is able to fix it. For example, my uncle was in a fishing tournament and he couldn’t catch a fish for a long time and his opponents were winning. So he then decided to go to another part of the lake and try again and finally, he caught some fish. Even though he didn’t win, the next week and the week after that until he finally won! He never gave up until he won a tournament. My uncle perseveres in all areas of his life and I admire that about him.

My uncle is also heroic to me because he is very creative and sometimes acts like a kid. I remember when I was little, if I was upset about something, he would take me out to this fishing store where there was a parrot and tons of fake fishing bait. He would buy  a lot of fishing tackle for me that looked like lizards, snakes and frogs. We then went home, we hid it in my mom and my aunt’s purses. They saw the bait and screamed. They were scared so badly they wouldn’t talk to us very much. Fortunately, after dinner, they were fine. My uncle and I laughed so much about that prank. He also made up funny plays for us to perform such as ‘the three stooges’ or ‘the ankle sprain’.

My uncle is heroic to me because he always tryies to make people happy. One day, my uncle took my sister and me on a fishing trip to Jordan Lake. I remember when we were sitting in the boat fishing my uncle noticed that my sister was getting sad because she hadn’t caught a fish yet.  So my uncle tried to catch a fish for her with her Barbie Fishing Pole. He started fishing and all of a sudden caught a ten pound catfish on that tiny little pole. My sister squealed with delight and I remember we were laughing so hard we almost fell out of the boat!!  The fish kept wiggling and squirming around making us giggle even more. He was able to make the whole day fun for us.

My uncle has had a big impact on my life because if I didn’t have my uncle, I wouldn’t know how to forgive and forget. He taught me that when I would get upset with anyone, he would just make me happy and help me feel good about myself. He has always been there for me and he will always be there. My uncle has inspired me in so many ways. It’s pretty amazing how someone can have such an affect on your life. He is funny, he taught me how to fish, and he is always willing to play baseball with me. He has always been like a kid around me and someone that I really enjoy spending time with. He is and always will be my hero.