Tuesday, September 27, 2011

First Things First

I didn't blog yesterday, and I try to do one every weekday. Oh, well, no one is perfect. And today is not the happiest of days for me, because I left my sunglasses in Keller 133 after Honors Forum! Yes, I know, me being all weird because I misplaced something... sigh... I'll have to get to campus early tomorrow morning and run over to Keller to see if they are still there and bear the brunt of the weird glances from the kids who already are in there, wondering why this strange, panic-faced girl is dashing through the classroom.

Tonight our speaker was Tammy Irons, State Senator. She spoke to us about how much ethics is involved in her work as an attorney and as a state legislator, and how many ethics reforms were put through after the big gambling trials fiasco. Now, if you ask me, however, something about there being 190-something charges and only 10 were found to have any substance sounds fishy in and of itself to me...

Anyway, the phrases (clauses- English nerd in me again) that struck me the most were how good and bad experiences shape your values and your life, and how people must live our their values consistently in their daily lives. We must set good examples for others- we have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Senator Irons also gave a good piece of advise, "If it would embarrass your mama, don't do it!"

She gave us a list of words that meant a lot to her: honesty, courage, passion, commitment, integrity, kindness, and hard work ethic. I agree 100% with all of those. See previous rant about keeping promises in my post about Dr. Thornell's talk. (Probably 20 posts ago or so.) But I think it is important! Not only should we be able to trust others' promises, we ourselves should be worthy of trust. Keeping promises means more than telling the truth, too; it also extends to punctuality! (Which might explain my paranoia of being late, leading to me sitting in my next classroom for ten minutes before the teacher walks in... Of course, the fact that I like my seat must also factor in...)

Senator Irons also said we have to watch the negative consequences of our choices as well as the positive ones- in other words, we cannot do something bad so good may result. That is how many people explain away their wrongdoings, no matter how deeply-entrenched were or they thought their morals were. Look at Boromir... Denethor...

You can tell I love the Lord of the Rings, can't you?

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

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