Category: Getting to Know You
Purpose Statement: Describe your sense of purpose. What is your life all about, and what have you been put on this earth to do?
What personal beliefs, values, and personal convictions guide you through life? Give 5 important values that you believe in, and explain why?
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What economic, physical, social, spiritual, or other factors enable (help or hinder) you in life? List three positive and three negative enabling factors?
Positive (Helpful):
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Negative (Harmful):
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3.
List three people in your life who helped you want to be the best person you can be. Explain why?
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List three people who hinder this process? Explain why?
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Describe three characteristics about your personality that you admire?
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Describe three characteristics about your personality that you do not admire?
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Favorite Quotes or Sayings about Life.
Purpose Statement: I believe I have been put here to help others in some way, and to show others I can do things in spite of different obsticles I might have.
I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I try to live every day to the best of my ability. I also keep in mind that noone is perfect, and we all need room to make mistakes, as we only live once and not everything will happen right the first time. i also believe in being thankful for what I have, although I can admit I'm not always following that! Also, for every door that closes, there is always a little window to peek through, even if you have to search for it! Give 5 important values that you believe in, and explain why?
Values:
1. Loyalty
2. Respect
3. Scense of Humor
4. Being Friendly toward others
5. and having time to nurture oneself.
Positive (Helpful) Factors:
1. being social
2. music
3. talents
Negative (Harmful) Factors:
1. looking at the downside of things
2. living by the past
3. being too open sometimes
People Who Have Most Helped Me:
1. My Granma because she raised me and knows me quite well
2. my friends because they give me advice and are there when I need them, I also get confidence from seeing things they do
3. teachers and caseworkers because they have given me so much help over the years
Three negative People:
1. my mom, she is not stable in my life
2. my aunt is very discouraging and overprotective, I love her though
3. the people who are negative toward me and told me I cant do things
Characteristics i admire:
1. my talents
2. outgoing
3. my ability to think through things while I am alone
Characteristics I do not admire:
1. hesitating to do things
2. judging people, though I really try not to
3. my self confidence sometimes
Favorite Quotes or Sayings about Life:
The ones I come up with...lol!
Ok, my computer sucks and I didn't explain my values...oh well I tried!
I think, in this whole site, this is the best survey ever made. Because you really get to know the person when they fill this one out. The questions are very deep and personal. Thats probably the reason why only one person filled it out. Hey to the last person. Thank you for filling this survey. I hope more people will try to fill this survey. It does not matter if you post it here or not. As long as you fill it out. This worksheet reveals how much you know about yourself and your values. If you have the time, try it out. It's really helpful if you want to know what you think is important, but otherwise If you don't want to fill it out. It's all right.
Oh it's Ashley, and I only did it because I'm your friend, lol jk!
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing -- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you -- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice -- you may know that your society is doomed." Ayn Rand
1 "Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.” Ayn Rand
2 "In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate." Ayn Rand
society
"A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race-and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin." Ayn Rand
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Ayn Rand
"I have come here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life.... It had to be said. The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing." Ayn Rand
"Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgement and nothing can help you escape it -- that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life." Ayn Rand
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals,
one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers." Ayn Rand"Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness." Ayn rand
"I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.” Ayn Rand
"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other." Ayn Rand
"The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles." Ayn rand
"You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live." Ayn Rand
"One is that a man doesn't want people to know he's rich. Another is that he doesn't want them to learn how he got that way." Ayn Rand
"The choice--the dedication to one's highest potential--is made by accepting the fact that the noblest act you have ever performed is the act of your mind in the process of grasping that two and two make four." Ayn Rand
"Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit." Ayn Rand
"Honest people are never touchy about the matter of being trusted." Ayn Rand
"For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors -- between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it." Ayn Rand
"Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another." Ayn Rand
"A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving." Ayn Rand
"Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins." Ayn Rand
"A house can have integrity, just like a person, and just as seldom." Ayn Rand
"Show me your achievement -- and the knowledge will give me courage for mine." Ayn Rand
"The person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him." Ayn Rand
"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received--hatred. The great creators--the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors--stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The first airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won." Ayn Rand
There's more
"I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between." Ayn Rand
"Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven. But not those who lack the courage of their own greatness." Ayn Rand
"For the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man -- the function of his reasoning mind. Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars." Ayn Rand
"I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire." Ayn Rand
"There is no such thing as duty. If you know that a thing is right, you want to do it. If you don't want to do it--it isn't right. If it's right and you don't want to do it--you don't know what right is and you're not a man." Ayn Rand
"It is futile to fight against, if one does not know what one is fighting for." Ayn Rand
"Observe that in all the propaganda of the ecologists-amidst all their appeals to nature and pleas for 'harmony with nature'-there is no discussion of man's needs and the requirements of his survival. Man is treated as if he were an unnatural phenomenon. Man cannot survive in the kind of state of nature that the ecologists envision-i.e., on the level of sea urchins or polar bears." Ayn Rand
"The worst evil that you can do, psychologically, is to laugh at yourself. That means spitting in your own face." Ayn Rand
"What is greatness? I will answer: it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem." Ayn Rand
"Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death." Ayn Rand
"If devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking." Ayn Rand
"In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's
proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours." Ayn Rand
"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)." Ayn Rand
"Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it. Reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses. The task of his senses is to give him the evidence of existence, but the task of identifying it belongs to his reason,
his senses tell him only that something is, but what it is must be learned by his mind." Ayn Rand
"Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution- or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason." Ayn Rand
"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." Ayn Rand
"No one's happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy Nobody respects an altruist, neither in private life nor in international affairs. An altruist is a person who keeps sacrificing himself and his values, which means: sacrificing his friends to his enemies, his allies to his protagonists, his interests to any cry for help, his strength to anyone's weakness,
his convictions to anyone's wishes, the truth to any lie, the good to any evil." Ayn Rand
"The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort." Ayn Rand
"The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. To a creator, all relations with men are secondary." Ayn Rand
"The moral cannibalism of all hedonist and altruist doctrines lies in the premise that the happiness of one man necessitates the injury of another." Ayn Rand
"The moral precept to adopt... is: Judge, and be prepared to be judged." Ayn Rand
"The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort." Ayn Rand
"The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live." ayn Rand
"There is no escape from the fact that men have to make choices; so long as men have to make choices, there is no escape from moral values; so long as moral values are at stake, no moral neutrality is possible. To abstain from condemning a torturer, is to become an accessory to the torture and murder of his victims." Ayn Rand
"There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns." Ayn Rand
"Thought does not bow to authority." Ayn Rand
"To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality." Ayn Rand
"To know one's own desires, their meaning and their costs requires the highest human virtue: rationality." Ayn Rand
"To love is to value. Only a rationally selfish man, a man of self-esteem, is capable of love -- because he is the only man capable of holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed values. The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone." Ayn rand
"Unjust laws have to be fought ideologically; they cannot be fought or corrected by means of mere disobedience and futile martyrdom." ayn Rand
"Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: do you consider it moral to treat men as sacrificial animals and to rule them by physical force?" Ayn rand
There's even more
"We cannot fight against anything, unless we fight for something -- and what we must fight for is the supremacy of reason, and a view of man as a rational being." Ayn Rand
"Whether you know the shape of a pebble or the structure of a solar system, the axioms remain the same: that it exists and that you know it." Ayn Rand
"I want to see, real, living, and in the hours of my own days, that glory I create as an illusion. I want it real. I want to know that there is someone, somewhere, who wants it, too. Or else what is the use of seeing it, and working, and burning oneself for an impossible vision? A spirit, too, needs fuel. It can run dry." Ayn rand
"Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"My dear Doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late, than never to learn it at all" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"I can't make bricks without clay." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"My line of thoughts about dogs is analogous. A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones. And their passing moods may reflect the passing moods of others." SIR Arthur Conan Doyle
"It has been a case for intellectual deduction, but when this original intellectual deduction is confirmed point by point by quite a number of independent incidents, then the subjective becomes objective and we can say confidently that we have reached our goal. I had, in fact, reached it before we left Baker Street, and the rest has merely been observation and confirmation." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"It is usually wiser to tell the truth. But why did you lie to him?" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"What indeed? It is Art for Art's sake, Watson. I suppose when you doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last. This is an instructive case. There is neither money nor credit in it, and yet one would wish to tidy it up. When dusk comes we should find ourselves one stage advanced in our investigation." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"I mean to find her. I'm going through this house till I do find her." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Very good! Shall we argue about it here in public, or talk it over in your parlour?" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Why be normal?" Anonymous
"It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches of yours, which is entirely meretricious, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"It seemed to me that a careful examination of the room and the lawn might possibly reveal some traces of this mysterious individual. You know my methods, Watson. There was not one of them which I did not apply to the inquiry. And it ended by my discovering traces, but very different ones from those which I had expected." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the room, as there is no concealment possible. When, then, did he come?" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not
present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery
of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius..." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Is it not? Is it not? Breadth of view, my dear Mr. Mac, is one of the essentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Surely our profession, Mr. Mac, would be a drab and sordid one if we did not sometimes set the scene so as to glorify our results. The blunt accusation, the brutal tap upon the shoulder -- what can one make of such a denouement? But the quick inference, the subtle trap, the clever forecast of coming events, the triumphant vindication of bold theories -- are these not the pride and the justification of our life's work?" SIR Arthur Conan Doyle
"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"By a man's finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt cuffs -- by each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the
lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"From a drop of water," said the writer, "a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other.
So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"My instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. It is no compliment to a man. Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson, and I have a piece of work for us both tonight which, if we can bring it to a successful conclusion, will in itself justify a man's life on this planet." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(sighs) and yet there is still more
I believe my purpose is to teach others lessons I’ve learned through things I’ve experienced. I think I’ve been put on this earth as living proof that anyone can make it through the most difficult situations; it’s all in how you look at it.
treating people the way I want to be treated guides me through life because you get what you give to me; if you treat me like crap, you’ll get that back...if you’re respectful and kind, that’ll be returned to you. being responsible for myself and my actions; I’ve learned that’s one of the keys to true happiness. there were many times in my life with my bio mom/her side of the family that I felt I was having to be responsible for everyone else as well as myself. it was my life and I never complained, but once I was out of the situation and evaluated it for what it was, I realized I’m only obligated to take responsibility for myself and no one else. trusting myself; doing so has allowed me to make my own mistakes, learn from them, and figure out how I can better said tasks/situations next time. learning to listen to criticism and take it well; this has helped me because I know when someone brings something to my attention they’re probably right. I understand they aren’t trying to hurt me, rather, they want to help me become a better woman for myself and those in my life. being honest; while this is one of the most important things to me, it’s last because I’m more passionate about the other things. I’ve learned that honesty, no matter the subject matter, is always best. I’d much rather people tell me the whole truth, than sugar code things or tell me what they think I want to hear...and I’d hope people expect the same of me.
positive factors; becoming a part of my aunt’s family, going to the Louisiana Center, and living life to the fullest no matter what comes my way. through being a part of my aunt’s family, I now know what a loving, functional family is like. going to LCB has truly shown me that I can do and be anything I want in more ways than I could ever imagine. completely living life to the fullest no matter what I’m faced with helps me every day because I know I can get through anything and come out a stronger person because of it. negative factors: my bio mom sheltering me, taking the other side of the family away, and my bio dad not wanting anything to do with me. Because of being sheltered, there’re lots of things I never learned that I should’ve, such as trust being earned, not given freely. in not letting me have contact with the other side of the family, I missed out on many valuable relationships and people who truly love me. my bio dad not wanting anything to do with me is his choice, and I’ve come to terms with it now. however, it’s hurtful at times because I don’t know what it’s like to have a father figure, and I’m sure I could’ve benefitted from it tremendously.
people who help me want to become a better person: my bio mom, grandpa, and best friend. I chose my bio mom because everything she has done or failed to do has made me a better/stronger person. I don’t want to be like her in any way; I choose to learn from her mistakes/mistreatment and use them as tools to help me do what I know is right in my heart. grandpa was chosen because he held on all these years to see the day I was back in their lives. in turn, that makes me want to do my best no matter what, and continue to live life to the fullest every day. my best friend makes me want to be a better person; he helps make that happen (even though he probably wouldn’t take credit for it). he has been there for me through thick and thin, and continues to do so daily. he’s my rock, the one that cheers me up when I’m down, and the one I can tell anything to. I couldn’t imagine life without him, and I hope I never have to.
Purpose Statement: Describe your sense of purpose. What is your life all about, and what have you been put on this earth to do?
What personal beliefs, values, and personal convictions guide you through life? Give 5 important values that you believe in, and explain why?
1. Time
2. Life learning skills
3. enabled to read
4.
5.
What economic, physical, social, spiritual, or other factors enable (help or hinder) you in life? List three positive and three negative enabling factors?
Positive (Helpful):
{?}
1.
2.
3.
Negative (Harmful):
{?}
1.
2.
3.
List three people in your life who helped you want to be the best person you can be. Explain why?
1. Mom
2. Dad
3. Auntie
{not into explaining}
List three people who hinder this process? Explain why?
{Choose not to}
1.
2.
3.
Describe three characteristics about your personality that you admire?
{I dunno}
1.
2.
3.
Describe three characteristics about your personality that you do not admire?
{I dunno know}
1.
2.
3.
Favorite Quotes or Sayings about Life.
“Life is… one step at a Time.”
Purpose Statement: Describe your sense of purpose. What is your life all about, and what have you been put on this earth to do?
I'm still trying to figure that one out. But I know I want to do something for my country and people before I die.
What personal beliefs, values, and personal convictions guide you through life? Give 5 important values that you believe in, and explain why?
1. Honour The Gods. The Gods come before all and are all. If it weren't for Them, I would have nothing and be nothing. So I must always remember Them in whatever I do. Sometimes, I seem to be to busy, I don't make proper sacrifice or libations etc, but I always try my best.
2.Patriotism. I take my country, Hellas, very seriously. There is nothing I wouldn't do for her, nothing I wouldn't give, including my very life if necessary. Despite the good and the bad that may happen over a given lifetime, the land is eternal and as an Ellinida (Greek woman) it's up to me to defend and protect it in whatever way I can, even if it's just to support my fellow Greeks who are actually charged with doing so, and, when I finally become a citizen, to vote for those whom I truly believe will help the nation..
3. My family. My immediate family (Mom, her partner Joanie and Grandma) are very important to me as is my brother Adam, his wife Cheryl, their son Allex and the baby-to-be. I can't say I put them above my country, but they're directly below it and I'd do anything for them and give anything to them.
4. Good treatment of animals and children. I take the well being of children and animals very seriously. Children are our future as humanity and animals should be treated with respect, even when used for food. We're no special beings who have rule over everything by divine intervention, and even if we did, shouldn't we be kind rulers?
5. Honesty. Honesty has gotten me through alot of stuff in my life that lying would've otherwise complicated or made worse. I believe in just telling the truth and letting the cards fall where they may, at least 99.99% of the time. This is especially true with my family who loves me and cares about me. How can they help me if I lie to them?
What economic, physical, social, spiritual, or other factors enable (help or hinder) you in life? List three positive and three negative enabling factors?
Positive (Helpful):
1. The Gods. I pretty much explained that one earlier. I think Hermes, Hestia, Aphrodite and Athena especially are really there for me when I need them and I'm sincerely grateful for that. It would also be wrong if I didn't mention those in the spiritual realm whom I so deeply love and who are such a major part of my life.
2. My Mom. She's the one person who, right or wrong, good or bad, is there for me. She's my rock and my island in my darkest hour of need and I can't even explain how much of herself she's given up to bring me up and be there for me. I will always be grateful to her for everything.
3. My strength of character. I'm the type of person who doesn't sit there and wallow in self pitty or self hatred. Do I have my bad days? Sure. I'm human. But I get over it and move on. If I can't be good to myself and love myself, I can't possibly accept love or kindness from anyone else nor can I give it.
Negative (Harmful):
1. Procrastination. This is, by far, the biggest thing holding me back. I want alot out of life but just don't get up and go for it. It's not because I believe I can. Part of it is fear of failure but most is just plain laziness. While not rich or able to just do whatever, I'm pretty comfortable and that's led to me relaxing my standards of myself and that's a very bad thing.
2. Blindness. I usually don't focus on it or think of it, but I suppose it has it's place. My mobility, for example, is terrible. It's not like I could just pick up and live my dreams right now and go to Greece etc, even if someone gave me a ticket, a visa, shelter and a job. I'm just not ready yet when it comes to travel. I also am finding it difficult to locate a job, though I know that will come whenever it's meant to. In the meantime, I keep working on my traveling and independence skills and posting my info to job sites.
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3. No Hellenic blood/citizenship. If I were a Greek citizen, life would be so much easier in that I could automatically move and get settled. Even if I had Hellenic blood (assuming it was enough), I could go for citizenship. For awhile, I thought that I had some, and the day that we thought we found out about it was among the happiest in my life, but it turns out we were wrong. At least I know what I am inside. Still, it's gonna be difficult getting that visa and work permit just on U.S. citizenship.
List three people in your life who helped you want to be the best person you can be. Explain why?
1. Mom. I just look at her and think "wow. I wanna be like her. So strong, so life smart." And I'm getting there. She always tells me I can do it and encourages me to live my dreams, even if she doesn't always agree with them.
2. markos Vamvakaris. While he's no longer living in the physical realm, and while I never knew him, his songs and life story have touched me so profoundly that mere words cannot explain it. I think of him and always want to be my best. I want to show that I can do it, and I take comfort in the fact that he came from nothing and became something. Whenever I'm happy, sad, confused, lonely etc, I listen to his music and read his biography for guidance and find it there. It's also because of him that I've chosen my last name Vamvakari (I drop the s cause I'm a woman) and will wear it with honour.
3. My boyfriend. They say that the older you get the harder it is to learn a language. Well, someone, thankfully, forgot to tell him that. He's 64 and has only been in this country for a few years, yet he's pushing himself every way he can to improve in language and in life. I must say, he's doing amazingly well and truly inspires me. I always wanna do better so I can share the happiness with him and maybe help him along the way too if I can.
List three people who hinder this process? Explain why?
1. Me. I'm really the only one who can. I mean, The Gods aside, I'm the only one who really controls my destiny. So when I quit being lazy, maybe, I can start to truly live.
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Describe three characteristics about your personality that you admire?
1. I'm a go-getter. It may take awhile, sometimes a really long time, for me to get started in something, but once I do, there's no stopping me. I know what I want and go after it full speed ahead.
2. I've got a good sense of humour. Many times, I can be serious, but I know how to cheer people up and make them laugh. I often laugh at myself too, which eases the feelings of those around me.
3. I learn quickly. If I really love something, I pick it up like a sponge and remember it. Even if I don't, my general thirst for knowledge will make me remember some of it or at least ask one or two questions on it. While I don't go in search of things that don't interest me, I still listen and store the info for a later date.
Describe three characteristics about your personality that you do not admire?
1. I'm lazy. I guess this is like procrastination but it's so so annoying. I'll wanna do something and then keep putting it off. It drives me crazy!
2. I'm not a fluent Greek speaker yet. Okay, this one's not really personality, but I don't like it. I try my hardest, but sometimes, when I speak especially, I'll lose some of what the other person is saying or I'll say something wrong, when using new words, and I'll feel like an idiot. I'm slowly starting to realise that everyone who learns a new language does that so am going easier on myself and challenging myself to read things outside my lessons and speak with people only in Greek for practice.
3. My sweaty hands. I hate hate hate them. I'm always sweating, wet, clammy or cold. The few times I'm not, I start to get used to it for a few days, and then it comes back. I'm looking into iontoforisis.
Favorite Quotes or Sayings about Life.
1. Prepei na ksereis mihani. (Πρέπει να ξέρεις μηχανή) .) It means you've gotta know your tricks. Good song too. lol
2. "There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek." (Gus Portokalos, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding
3. "Eleftheria i thanatos" "Ελευθερία ή θάνατος" "Freedom or Death" Motto of the Hellenic Republic.
4. "When life gives you Nescafe, make a frappe." self-quote