Category: Unit 02

Family

Loyalty

Friendship

Independence

Security

Integrity

Personal accomplishment

Wisdom

Enjoyment

Location

Leadership

Health

Personal development

Service

Community

Creativity

Wealth

Expertness

Prestige

Power

 

Today I went on a hike, talked to my mom on the phone, did homework, cooked, and hung out with my friends. The values that represent each of these activities are family, friendship, independence, personal accomplishment, enjoyment, and security.

 

My top five values are family, loyalty, friendship, independence, and security. From the activities I did today four out of the five values are represented.  Family the first value on my list, I take to heart and carry it with me all the time. It is something that I have inherited from my mother. She has always put family first above anything. An example, growing up she would work the night shift just so my older brother and I would see her in the mornings before school and see her when we came home from afterschool. I have also learned that at the end of the day your family are the only people you can truly trust, so for me even though I live in a seven hours from my family now, I make sure to call them everyday.  Loyalty is my second value and I honor it as much as I can with other people, such as my family and friends, but it is something that I hope to receive back from friends of mine. Friendship is my third value and friendships are near and dear to me. I am not one of those people that have a large amount of friends, I rather have friends that I know I can trust and can have fun with. For me in friendship it’s quality over quantity. Independence and security are my four and five on the values list. To me these go hand in hand. I am a very independent person, but I fight for my independence all the time especially being that I grew up in a Mexican household, I am constantly struggling to show my parents that I have grown up and can rely on myself, and make decisions by myself without them constantly having to check up on me or question me who I am because of it.  Security later on in life would ensure that I would be able to achieve that independence that I have always wanted.

 

Power and wealth are two belief patterns that still have authority in my thinking but I can sometimes acknowledge that they are no longer valid. I know what both power and wealth can do to a person; I have witnessed it and that is something I never want to be. That is why I do not have power and wealth very high on my list of values, while I do want to make money in the future, it’s the my number on priority to do so.

 

Goals that I have for myself is to be someone in life that I can be happy about being. Having a career that I don’t dread to get up in the morning to go to. Being able to start a project or set a goal and actually finishing. What stands in my way of acting upon these goals is myself. Being happy with myself in the future will come down to me and the decisions leading up to that said moment of happiness. The career path that I choose while is kind of up to the job market at the time; at the end will be up to me in which direction I choose.  One goal that I have for myself right now is to run the Eugene half-marathon, I’ve always wanted to try and run a half marathon but I just never start training for it so it’s one of those start and you better finish goals that I have for myself.

To start off, I think this read was very interesting. I’d never put the thought into the reasoning as to how and why we each have our own values.

A quote within the read that really stuck out to me was, “Personal values matter a great deal. Without them, we cannot live at all, for they are just as essential as air, food, and water, and protection from elements.” (Lewis, 1990) At first I didn’t believe that values held such a strong importance in one’s lives, but thinking more about the idea I would agree. Values that one holds are the way in such one lives their life, how they make specific decisions day to day.  I personally feel that my values are what keep me going from time to time.

Another part in the reading that I really liked was  “There is a good deal of evidence that human beings are not primarily driven by genetically determined instincts but are rather free to make their own choices.” (Lewis, 1990) I think this idea holds very true. If you look at, each member in a family all hold their individual values. Some of those values may be shared within each member in the family because all have held the same experience, but in most cases not everyone will hold those same values. This personally holds true for me; religion has always played a large role in my upbringing. I was born and raised as a Catholic, but for the most part I was more as a cradle Catholic. It wasn’t until I came to the UO that I have made my religion my own, and now has helped me to mold some of my values. My brother on the other hand is an Atheist, and has his reasoning to not believe in a God. We both look at things a little differently but at the end of it hold some of the same values.  As the article goes on to explain, the way values are tailored is by a combination of the four interior mental modes and the two synthetic mental modes.  There are endless combinations of each mental mode can signify a difference in values to individuals, but that’s what makes the idea of values beautiful. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices and determine how their values will help define who they are.