1. a) In completing the values activity, I was able to reflect and truly think about what the most important values were to me. While I agreed with many of the values found in the activity, I ended up agreeing the most with “I believe that everyone should have the same opportunities and rights“, “I believe it is important to take care of others and help them meet their needs” and “I believe it is important to continually pursue new skills and self-awareness”. These descriptions correlate to the values, equality, helping and personal growth.
b) On the other hand, the statements I agreed the least with are, “I believe we should respect an established way of how things have been done”, “I believe it is important for people to seek connection to a higher purpose” and “I believe it is important for people to voluntarily do what is expected of them.“ These represent tradition, spiritual growth and responsibility.
2. As for whether I agree with these values, I do agree with most, not all. I agree with my highest values being equality, helping and personal growth. I am always looking to incorporate and follow these values in my daily life no matter what I am doing. Whether that is working on myself by learning and improving, helping and taking care of others or doing my best to be fair and advocate for equality. I also agree with my some least important values, which are tradition and spiritual growth. For tradition, I believe that tradition can be good in some aspects. The description of tradition in the activity is what I do not agree with. We should respect traditions, yes, but we should not always keep the established way. Things need to keep evolving and changing because there are always ways to improve in everything. I do not agree with the spiritual growth statement because personally, I do not think that everyone needs to believe in a higher power. You can, but it is not a core value for me, nor is it a necessary value in life. The only result I do not agree with as being one of my least important values is responsibility. Responsibility is crucial to me. However, when the statement said people should do what is expected of them, that is where I disagree. For me, responsibility is more about being independent, trustworthy and going beyond what is expected.
3. a) Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals presented by the United Nations, I think that my core values of equality, helping and personal growth most line up with the goal of reduced inequalities. By reducing inequalities, you are both providing equality and fairness to all everyone who are affected impacted, and helping people so that they can thrive in an unprejudiced society. In doing this, everyone is learning about how to be more courteous, inclusive and generous, which demonstrates true personal growth.
b) Each of my top values are achieved when inequalities are reduced in the world, which is why this Sustainable Development Goal is also one of my passions. I wish we could have a world where everyone is equal, and we live in peace instead of violence. So, in any small way that I can, I try to combat inequalities. My other passion is climate action, which is another one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal.
c) This is the passion I decided to focus on for my action project this semester. Climate change is a critical problem that our world is facing right now that, in turn, creates many inequalities for people all over the world. In order to help this problem in a small way, I will be going out to do one or more oceanside cleanups in my area. The plastic and pollution of our planet is a big factor in climate change, and so I want to use my action project to create even a minor change.
