Values

My values define the person i try to be.  Picking only a few to talk about is difficult.  There are so many values I try to incorporate into my everyday life. The one's I will talk about are Humility, Understanding and Honesty.

Humility is something I have always tried to practice.  No matter what type of success i achieve, i hope to always stay humble.  This one I don't find very hard to do because in all honesty it is ingrained in my personality.  I get it from my mommy : ) 

Honesty is another value I think is very important, but also one of the hardest to maintain.  Many times I can justify telling a little white lie.  What harm can it do right?  More often than not it would cause less pointless stress if i told the white lie than telling the truth would.  Yet everytime that thought comes to me another one accompanies it.  If I tell that white lie I do a diservice not only to myself, but also to the person on the other end of that lie.  No matter what, I believe people deserve the truth.  No matter how much stress, pointless or important, it brings.

The last one i'll talk about is Understanding.  This is another difficult one to comprehend.  In essence it might not seem like that big of a deal.  To me though, it is the most important value I have.  We interact with people on a daily basis.  If you're like me you run across more than a few nuts on the buckeye tree that rub you the wrong way.  It's very difficult to put up with someone who is annoying.  It's even harder to try and understand why someone acts the way they do.  Putting in the time and the effort to try and get to know someone who you might not even enjoy being around is exhausting.  More often than not you're opinion will not change.  But no matter how you feel afterwards you will gain an understanding of why that person acts the way they do.  This insight brings about appreciation for that person and their struggles, despite your initial feelings towards them.

Obviously there are a lot more values than the 3 above that I try to live by but these are 3 of the one's that i feel define who I am.  Having values is an important aspect for Greek Life to maintain.  It is the values of each individual fraternity that defines them and makes them who they are.  Choosing which values to support and hold in high regard can reflect the ways people, both inside and outside of greek life, are portrayed.  How to maintain a fraternities values while also maintaining what keeps a fraternity going can have a big impact on how Greek Life will be portrayed in the future.