1. Family

2. Friendship

3. Loyalty

4. Integrity

5. Enjoyment

6. Independence

7. Wisdom

8. Leadership

9. Health

10. Personal Development

11. Personal Accomplishment

12. Security

13. Community

14. Wealth

15. Service

16. Prestige

17. Expertness

18. Power

19. Creativity

20. Location

My activities today have been on the boring side considering I was on a road trip.  However, I always carry my values with me and I certainly did activities to show that.  I spent all weekend with my best friends and sorority sisters.  I spent a great deal of time with them and I always continue to build stronger relationships with them.  Unfortunately, I did not get to spend time with my family this weekend but I do always keep in constant contact with them.  They are the first on my list because even if I have nothing at all, I can always count on my parents and sister.  They mean the absolute world to me and my future kids and husband will also be my number one priority in life.  My third value is loyalty.  Loyalty is incredibly important to me because I have had too many experiences with people who are not loyal to me and continue to let me down.  My true friends are the ones that value the quality of loyalty as much as I do.  Integrity is my next value because if we are not happy with ourselves and our actions, then it does not really matter what else we do have. It is crucial that we hold ourselves to high standards.  I chose enjoyment as my fifth most important value because if we do not enjoy what we are doing, then it has little purpose.  Being content with our life-track is incredibly important.  This weekend, I had so much fun and would not change one thing about hanging out with my friends and watching Oregon beat The Huskies.

I have adopted many of these values from my parents.  They hold a lot of these values in importance as I have.  I am still working on a few values on this list.  Personal Development and wealth are values that I will continue to work towards as I am almost done with college and about to start a career.  I believe that a great amount of these values do not completely manifest until we are older and have experienced more in life.  However, they are all extremely important and none can be ignored.  I would like to get more involved in the community.  As a requirement at my sorority, I do participate in some community service, but definitely not as much as I would like.  When I get settled in a career, I hope that I am able to work more for the less fortunate and give back to the community in that way.

This article discusses the importance of our values, where they come from, and how we define them.  One topic that the author covers is how we construct a “framework” for our values.  Whether we are born with certain instincts or they develop as we grow has been a topic of debate to this day.  It cannot be proven or denied and may very well never have an answer.  Even though there is no definite answer, the author writes, “…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” (Personal Values 7).  I completely agree with this statement.  We are fortunate enough to live in a country where we have the freedom to make our own decisions.  In most cases, our parents lay out basic values that they hope we adopt and as we grow and experience new things, we alter our values to be specific to how we, as individuals, want to run our lives.  The author also posses the question, how do we really know anything?  I suppose the answer is “through observation,” however, it is an incredibly interesting question.  Our values may derive from things we think we know, when in reality, they are not factual. Many religious people live their lives knowing that Jesus is their savior and was resurrected.  If indeed these beliefs are not true, did these people live lies?  Religion as a whole is a controversial and complex topic.  There may not be a right or wrong answer but these beliefs do shape our value framework and impact the way in which we live our lives.  I believe that the author’s main point is to say that we have values but often do not evaluate how we arrive at them.  We accept many things at face-value when in reality, they need a great deal of examination.