THE ADVENTURE BEGINS:

My name is Proteus. I refer to myself as an RLSH (Real Life Super Hero) because I am a member of the RLSH community. I do not, however, consider myself to actually be one... Well, yet, anyway.

ORIGINS: 

This all started roughly a year ago. I was on the back end of a pretty bad patch in my life, and was just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was still in a pretty deep funk and was feeling pretty low about the general state of humanity in the world. I felt that no one out there cared... about anything. You'd hear news about people being savagely attacked in crowds where not only did no one lift a finger to help, but people actually recorded the beating on their phones to post on YouTube, rather than calling the police.

Well in the midst of my depression I would find myself mindlessly surfing the internet, looking for any nonsense that could keep my mind otherwise occupied, when I came across something mentioning a Real Life Superhero by the name of Life. It talked about how he donned a Green Hornet style outfit and went around helping the homeless. I was instantly intrigued. 

I began looking for more information and found videos about other heroes out there; just everyday normal people who had had enough and were donning costumes in the tradition of all the great comic books and going out in the world, trying to make a difference. This was amazing to me. I was suddenly alive again. It was like I could suddenly actually feel a heart beating in my chest for the first time in I don't know how long.

I knew this was what I was looking for. This is how I could change my life and make a difference. No, I had no intention of going out and beating up bad guys or trying to be Batman. Let's be realistic. I knew chances were that I'd be shot or stabbed on my first "patrol". I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to help wherever I could. Help the homeless, lend assistance to those in need, spread my message of ending all forms of the apathy that has spread across this great nation of ours like a cancer. That was my goal, that would become my mission.

STARTING OUT:

Now I wasn't coming out of the gate completely unprepared. I'm a trained, license carrying security officer. I know that doesn't sound all that impressive, and maybe it isn't. But I found that as I looked more into what it is to be an RLSH, the more it appeared to be exactly the type of thing I do on the job, but with a little extra flair - and the chance to actually help people. 

So I had that working for me, but there were a few other obstacles in my path. First, I was just coming out of a bad depression, as I mentioned before. It had lasted a couple of years and I had completely let myself go - Out of shape, overweight, I smoked nearly a pack and a half a day... I mean it was bad. I had finally stopped smoking the year previous, but my weight had ballooned even higher. The men in my family have always been burly, but over the two years I was down and out I had lost most if not all of my muscle mass.   I was a mess.

Now the second obstacle. I have an amazing, wonderful, beautiful fiance whom I love with every once of my being... and she thought the whole concept of people dressing up in tights and running around to be absolutely ridiculous. Eesh... Bad news.

The next obstacle was that I had absolutely no idea how to start. My girl was clearly not a supporter, so there was no way I was going to be able to easily get started on this and I really didn't know how to do homeless handouts or anything like that. I needed to get on the inside and learn.

As it turns out I'm a bit of a tinkerer and always thinking of new ideas and coming up with crazy designs for all manner of gadgets and gizmos, and I figured I could help other heroes design their looks, or logos, or design gear for them, then I could learn what I needed to learn from the community and satisfy my fiance that I'm not just acting like some kid playing superman.

That was my in, now I needed a persona.

THE IDENTITY:   

Where did the name come from? Why Proteus? Well, as I said earlier I'm a tinkerer and a designer, and I actually intend at some point to start a store making gear. So I figured the name I chose should be appropriate for what I do.

I came across the word 'protean' while looking up versatile in the thesaurus. Protean means "versatile", "mutable", "capable of assuming many forms". "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability. Perfect, that's exactly the image I wanted to project - something that shows tat I have many useful abilities. I then did a search of protean and found the name... PROTEUS

In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea god. The name itself means first... "primordial" or "firstborn"... The firstborn son of Poseidon, Proteus was born with two unique talents; he was a gifted shape changer, and he could see men's future. If a man captured Proteus he was obligated to tell that man his fortune. The major drawback was that he hated telling men their future, because it always ended the same... with death. So Proteus did the only thing he felt he could do - he spent his life in the form of other animals, hiding from mankind so that he wouldn't have to see man's bleak future.

In this kind of sad story I found my name. Where the Greek god Proteus used his abilities to hide from man's future, I would redeem that name by using my abilities to help make a better future for ALL mankind!

Ok, yea. That's a bit melodramatic. But it sounded good to me. 

THE MISSION:

Now I had my persona, I joined a couple of the more popular RLSH message boards, and I absorbed all the information I could. I wasn't ready to don the cape just yet, but I started implementing the ideals into my everyday life. I started stopping for people in trouble, I began handing out water to the homeless I encountered. My fiance and I started a new trend toward healthy eating and living and I began exercising regularly (which I will be discussing in future blogs)

And much to my surprise, after about a year of interacting with the community, my fiance finally caught on to what the movement is about and actually wanted to help! She took the name La Femme and now we are in the process of planning handouts as well as a ton of other charitable pursuits that I wouldn't have even considered without her. The mission has begun, and as it turns out, I'm not alone after all.

Now I know I'm not going to change the whole of mankind. There's a long hard road ahead of us before I'm in a place where I can set aside the Hero Support label and call myself a full fledged RLSH,But I'm working hard to make myself better and I know that there are people out there that I can help every day. If one person survives an extra day because of the bottled water and supplies La Femme and I handed them, or one person decides to help someone else, rather than just walk on because of the example I have set, then I've done my job. And that will keep me going.

This is the first entry of a blog that will follow my life as I strive to become a true RLSH. In it I will share my ups and downs, my methods and ideals, My ideas and whatever else I can think of. I will share what I have learned on my path to physical and mental fitness, the tricks that will make me a better person and a better hero, and even my quest to create THE PROTO-SUIT... Exciting, right? Stick around, there's a lot more to come.