Which of your regular activities outside the classroom (group or individual) best reflect your most important personal values? How?
Another activity that I enjoy, and which also reflects my basic values, is planning my spending activities during the month. The value that is involved here is to carefully plan my finances in a way that helps me to not only survive, but also to have money left over to save towards my longer-term goals.
If the recent recession taught me anything, it is that the value of money and the stability of income are by no means guaranteed. It is therefore important to create a strong basis of wealth in terms of savings and investments in order to secure a future for oneself and those who might rely on one's resources.
Learning to work carefully with my money now will also help me in my financial future, when I may have new responsibilities....
If I succeed in creating a sound basis of savings, I will also be able to give more to charitable and non-profit organizations.
The two values of careful saving and caring for others therefore integrate with each other. I would not be able to give my time and resources to the volunteer work I'm currently doing if I did not have funding at my disposal. The best way to secure funding is to work for it and to save what I can. The only way to do this is to make sure that I budget carefully and save what I can.
I believe the two above-mentioned values will carry me throughout my life by means of helping me feel that I do what I can to help my fellow creatures on earth while also providing for myself and my loved ones. Having values like these is important, because it is our values that make us human. It is also our values that secure for us long-term relationships with the people we love.
