Thank You, Stan Lee.

I clenched my hands, summoning energy from the sun, growing more and more powerful by the second.  My enemies had me surrounded, but they didn't know that they were about to be engulfed in a huge storm of psionic energy that would tear them apart.

"I said...GET BACK!"

I throw my hands up to the sky, releasing a wave of solar gathered power all across my backyard, destroying the robots who had come to lock me up, for fear that I was not safe, and that my abilities needed to be suppressed.

Of course all of this was imagined; just a chance to go outside and pretend that I was one of the heroes I found in another Marvel comic book.

On Monday, Stan Lee, one of the greatest creative minds of the past 50 years passed away.  Scrolling through social media as well as National Headlines, it becomes clear that the characters that he helped to create have left a colossal imprint on the psyche of America.

While in the DC universe Superman and Batman may be the most recognizable Super-Heroes of all-time, I fell in love with the creations of Spider-Man, The Hulk, and then finally the X-Men.

To me it was the X-Men cartoon that really made me fall in love with this fantasy universe.  I had always enjoyed the idea of fantastical heroes, but something about the X-Men drew me in more than the rest, and I think that something was in how they were made.

I was different from most kids due to my relative size.  I was bigger than most and that made me an outcast at times.  I wanted to fit in, but on some level it always felt like someone would point out something that made me different, that made me not like the rest of the group.

I think that's why so many kids enjoyed those comics, that they always saw a little bit of themselves in the actual build of the characters.  They also saw those characters then battle adversity and eventually succeed.

For most people who are left out of the mainstream, that was a big message.  That even though some people may not like you because you're different, that doesn't stop you from doing the right thing and becoming successful at your own right.

Growing up can be hard at times, but I'll always have Stan Lee to thank for making my life a little easier.