When I think of my life thus far, I think the narrative values which most describe my life are steadfastness, intellectual curiosity, and personal integrity.
Steadfastness can be used to describe a life that is characterized by dedication and endurance. The steadfast life is one in which the person does not simply abandon projects when they become difficult. The steadfast person is one who is unwavering in their dedication to a cause. They believe in their causes, and that is what compels them to give their best effort. I can see this in my own life’s trajectory. When my parent’s divorced, I could have allowed sadness to bog me down and prevent me from engaging in my roles as a student, employee, friend, musician, student government member, and others. Instead, I chose to not allow it to stop me from continuing to excel in my projects; it actually motivated me to work a little harder. In the winter of 2015, I realized that I did not like the major I was pursuing. I began to question the purpose of my courses if I wasn’t going to continue with the major. I then turned to OSU’s list of majors to search for a replacement, and could not seem to find anything which matched my interests. I then began to question the purpose of being in college, if I couldn’t find the right major for me. Rather than falling into some depressed episode, I became motivated to do further self-reflection and discover what I really wanted out of life, in order to choose the major which would best suit me. These two examples were the easiest and most accessible to me when I think of my life as being steadfast.
Intellectual curiosity is used to describe a life which is characterized by an intense passion for learning. The intellectually curious life is one in which the person actively seeks out new information and knowledge from the world around them. The intellectually curious person is never fully satisfied with their level of knowledge because they know there is more out there to be known. For me, this is rather obvious throughout the course of my life. Whenever I am exposed to something new and unfamiliar, I often become obsessed with learning as much about it as I possibly can. When a friend introduced me to the musical Hamilton, I spent the next couple hours researching the life of Alexander Hamilton, since I previously knew very little. His story intrigued me and compelled me to learn more about his life. In this Philosophy class, several discussions have gone on tangents to other areas of philosophy such as aesthetics and moral relativism. Knowing that the material from this course has interested me, whenever a new topic was introduced in discussion, I would spend some time after class reading a brief description of the topic to obtain a better understanding of the discussion. These are but a few instances in which the narrative value of intellectual curiosity has expressed itself in my life.
Personal integrity is used to describe a life that displays firm stability in a code of values. Personal integrity is odd in respect to being a narrative value because it is also a moral value. May argues that narrative values are not moral values because we can see meaning in nonmoral lives. He believes that immorality subtracts from the meaning of a life, but living a morally neutral life can still be meaningful. He further argues that only some moral values may provide meaning to our lives, and they may only do this if the value in question is also a narrative value. He uses courage and integrity as two examples of values which can be both moral and narrative ones. These two values of courage and integrity are known to be ones of moral importance, but they also seem to give a life meaning, so long as the person is subjectively engaged in the value. In my own life, I tend to base my decisions and actions on the foundation of values I adhere to. As cliché as this sounds, I have never used drugs or consumed alcohol because I believe that I must follow the laws surrounding those substances. Based on my belief in the significance of law and the role of citizens abiding by the law, I act in certain ways that are in accordance with my belief. Another example of integrity being exhibited in my life is in my dedication to being truthful. I believe that being truthful is far better than being deceitful. I do not attempt to deceive people about who I am or what I stand for. Whenever a controversial discussion requires my participation, I will openly declare my views and defend them, rather than apologizing for them or shying away from the conversation.