Personal Narrative: Where Do I Get My Values

Where Do I Get My Values? My values have been continuously developing and evolving throughout my entire life. My most important values influence the way I behave towards others and towards myself, and how I interpret the way people interact with me. First, one of my important values is honesty with others and myself. I believe that I should always be honest with other people otherwise I justify others being dishonest with me. My personal experiences with others who I lied to taught me to value being honest with people because it can strengthen relationships. Next, I also value hard work and that everyone should give their best effort in everything they attempt in life. The hard work of my parents to raise my brother and I, despite their struggles …show more content…
I believe that even if you fail, you should always give your best effort because that is all we can do in the end. I learned this value through watching my parents give their best effort to provide for my brother and me. Les Whitbeck and Viktor Gecas studied the significance of parents on children’s value systems and state, “among the more important tasks and responsibilities associated with the parental role is the socialization of children into a system of values and beliefs about self and society” (p. 829). My parents divorced shortly after my brother and I were born, and our mom took us to Tennessee to start a new life from New Mexico. Despite being alone in this new state, my mom managed to find work and provide for me and my brother through hard work and a refusal to quit despite the occasional hard times. I learned to value the same hard work watching my mom because I want to be able to survive on my own with the same determination as her. Also, my dad worked hard in order to provide my mom with child support in order to provide for my brother and I. He started his own call center business, and would work many hours every week in order to provide enough money for us. I have learned over the years that this workload was very hard on my dad and caused him a lot of health problems from the stress of providing for us. I admire my dad for his hard work and determination to provide …show more content…
This value was influenced by my changing views on religion. My entire family is Catholic, so my mom would always take my brother and me to Sunday service at the local church in Johnson City. Although I did not pay much attention in church, I did learn to help people who are less privileged than myself from my pastor. I would always help people with little things like holding open the door for others and carrying things for people since I was only a child. However, I would see other Catholics from my church being hateful towards those who did not follow their religious beliefs and it lead me to resent religion in general. My pastor revealed to me that certain people who refused the help of Catholicism and God were doomed to horrible fates in Hell and that shocked me. I reflected on the motivation for my values in helping people and I decided to assist everyone who needed help regardless of their religious beliefs. Steven Hitlin and Jane Allen Piliavin studied different institutions that influence personal values and found, “values of ‘openness to change’ and ‘self-expression’ incline people to become less religious” (p. 375). My openness to change allowed me to help many different people from different backgrounds through volunteer activities and everyday interactions. I do not despise those that are unwilling to help certain people, but I choose not to follow their values and