What are my values?

"The choices we make and the lives we lead, are driven by the values we hold."

I am a firm believer that a person's values are developed throughout the years of our lives. It has taken me several years to understand what my values are and what is important to me. And even now, I still am not positive what and why my values are what they are. But here's what I've come up with at the moment...

One of the values that I am positive of is my faith. Having attended Catholic schools my entire life, faith is my foundation to getting through all the tough times. I am beyond grateful and fortunate that my parents made the decision to send me to Catholic schools. At the time, I didn't understand the benefit, but looking back on it it has made me the person I am today. I am not going to go all "private school" and say I got a better education, or deny that there is such thing as the stereotypical "catholic school girl" (however  I am proud to say I was not one). But it definitely had its perks. It was nice to all be equal in uniform. There was no competition for best dressed or who had on the best makeup that day. Although there were AP classes in the cirriculum, all the other classes were just as demanding. Most importantly, we were required to do service. While some may see this as a hassle, I always looked forward to it. I  enjoy helping others and giving back to others for the experiences I was receiving. Although I am not a strict Catholic, but I love attending mass because it gives me time to just think about what I've done that past week, and what I want to change for the next. As I've stated in previous blog posts, I believe that everything happens for a reason. As I saw in one of my friend's facebook info's "My ultimate goal is to make it to heaven and I believe that even though I don't base my entire life around my religion, God still loves me."

Friendship is also important to me. I am a people person. I have the need to be around other people and interact. I love making new friends. While browsing through the Delta Zeta website, I came across a few quotes that spoke to me. "In order to be a friend, spend less time trying to be interesting; be more interested in your friends". I really feel that in order to be the best friend you can be, you have to put others before you. It will pay off. "Some people may do things to get attention. Some give attention to the little things, even when no one is looking."

People say they have a big family. This usually means they have lots of relatives. I feel there is a difference between family and relatives. Usually, I would consider someone a family member if you know them on a more personal level. Someone who is your third cousin once removed that lives in Georgia and you  maybe see every other year, if that, is a relative. I have a large family. My freshmen year in high school, I was somehow related to 32 people out of just under 700 students. My cousin almost went to homecoming with someone she quickly found out was a fourth cousin. I just took the time to go through my facebook friends, as embarrassing as it is, and this is what I came up with. I have 67 family members currently on facebook (I was surprised to discover that some have recently deleted theirs?). 15 out of 67 live out of town, by "out of town," 5 live in a different state and the other 10 live within an hour of Columbus. 27 of the 67 I see at every major holiday and all of our birthday celebrations, so basically almost once a month. 54 out of the 67 family members on facebook, I see 3-6 times a year. While a lot of them are my generation or close in age and are away at college, our attendence rates have started to fluctuate and aren't as consistant as they would have been 2-4 years ago. None the less, all of the relatives I counted, I am either first or second cousins, or first cousins once removed. Nothing more distant than that.

While some of my values were briefly described and others were more in depth, there are more values that fall underneath/ within each of the categories. The values above are things that are important to me. Things that I value close. There are also values that I choose to live by. 

• I try to be passionate about everything that I do. "Go big or go home." Put my all into it.
• I try to be strong. I am a girl. I am super sensitive. But I cannot let these stop me from doing what I want.
• I want to be truthful. True to myself, to others, to how I live my life.
• I try to be accepting and adaptable. Although I don't deal well with it, I try to always be open to change or even the idea of it.
• I am a maximizer. I always make it a goal to maximize my options.
• I always look for the positive aspects in a thing, person, or situation. I am a glass half full person.
• I am humble. I am giving. Although I respect myself a lot, I will put others first.

Writing this blog was one of the most difficult things to do. As I sat down to blog, I decided to make a list of my values. It was a over 20 topics long. Picking out my top values was obvious. Deciding why those were my top was more difficult. How I go about living each day was the hardest part. It made me realize that I do not always follow those values and made me think that maybe I should change or add new ones. I am making it a goal to make faith, education, service, friendship, and family my core values and applying passion, strength, truth, acceptance, adaptation, maximization, positivity, humbleness, and giving of myself to each of them.