2a) What are your 3 most important values?
Of all the values given to choose from, the most important ones to me are A) I believe that everyone should have the same opportunities and rights, M) I believe it is important to feel sympathy, care or concern for others, and finally, P) I believe it is important to continually pursue new skills and self awareness. In looking back at my previous choices selected in the beginning of the year, these are different values. However, I see that as a positive thing, I believe it shows that I have grown and gained a new perspective, which is one of the reasons why I chose P as a value of mine. After considering each of the values carefully, I am happy with those that I found selected.
b) What are your 3 least important values?
Values C,T and X are the least important values to me. Specifically, C is “I believe we should respect an established way of how things have been done”, T is “I believe it is important for people to seek connection to a higher purpose” and X is “I believe it is important for people to voluntarily do what is expected of them”. It is not that I do not agree with any of these statements, they are simply less significant to me personally. Fo example, I disagree with the statement that the established way should be the respected way because an original idea may not be the right idea for every person. And as a person or society we must evolve over time, I do not think it is a good thing to always stay the same. Hench why this value does not resonate with me.
3.) Do you agree with the results? What do these values mean to you?
I think the values that correlated with my first top 3 choices are a good reflection of what is important to me. From phrase A, I got equality, from phrase M I got compassion and from the final phrase, P, I got personal growth. I really like these values and when thinking about what what they mean in my life, they mean a great deal. Equality is to say that everyone should get treated equally and given the same opportunities on a personal, economical and societal level. However, we do not live in an equal world. This is because of racism, misogyny, homophobia and so many other contributing factors. While I cannot solve these issues, I am able to help at times. I try whenever possible to help someone when they are faced with a personal, economical or societal obstacle. I hope that in the future there is much more equality on this Earth. Next is compassion. Compassion is incredibly important and I always try to show compassion or empathy. I do this by trying to look at another perspective and show understanding towards someone, no matter if their viewpoint or experiences are different than my own. I believe that everyone should have more compassion, the world would be a better place is everyone were empathetic towards others. Finally, the last value I received was personal growth. Again, this is very important in my life. Without personal growth our world would never advance. Personal growth comes from education, but not necessarily school. School is a vital part, yet I think that reflecting is more effective. Reflecting on what you do not know and reflecting on how you could help others are some examples of the reflections that I do. If I do not know something, I research it, to be more informed. If I am not doing what I could to help someone, I reflect on why and find a way to help them.
4.) Research United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
a) Which one aligns with your values most?
I believe that reduced inequalities is the Sustainable Development Goal that aligns most with my 3 values found in the values activity. as I had mentioned before, our world is not equal in many ways for many reason, however this does not mean that this is the way it should be. I think that reducing inequalities are very possible, it simply requires time and dedication. Looking back on history is proof of this. We have advanced and become more equal in several ways, gender, race, religion. But, this only indicates that we are moving in the right direction, not that we are now completely equal. In order to reduce injustices for others we must also have compassion towards these issues and those it effects. The more people to recognize the struggles of others and are willing to help, the more that can be done to aid these situations. Personal growth is another very imminent factor is achieving this goal. We must reflect on why there are so many injustices around the world and how we can fix them. One must reflect on whether to take care or look the other way, I choose to care. Another reason as to why selected reduced inequalities is because it embodies many of the other 17 Sustainable Development Goals. For example, no poverty, zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, clean water sanitization and peace, justice and strong institutions. These all will be achieved once we reduce inequalities in each of these areas. Which is exactly what needs to be done, slowly but surely.
b) Which one is your passion Why?
Because of all the reasons described above, reduced inequalities is my passion. In my opinion, once inequalities are significantly reduced, if not solved, the world will be a much better place. Almost every problem or injustice we see in this world is because of the lack of equality. My passion and hope is that each person is accepted as an individual, regardless of their background or appearance. ……
c) Give one specific action you would like to apply to address this goal.
While I am not sure of the action I will be doing quite yet, I am sure that what I do will help reduce inequalities in some way. this may be helping seniors in our community, cleaning our neighbourhood, or any other volunteer deed that my group and I will be able to do to help. Cleaning our community is the action I did last semester and I am so glad that my group and I were able to put time and effort into something that helped not only our community, but our environment. As for this semester even though we are still figuring out the best and most effective way to help out in our city, I know that what we decide to do will be impactful, even it is only on a small scale. Because whether the difference made is small or big, it is still a difference and one that may help reduce inequalities one step at a time.