Our Values & How They are a Part of Us

Living into our values

Value 1: Creativity

1. What are one or two behaviors that support  your value?  I read a lot of books, specifically fantasy

2. What are one or two slippery behaviors that are  outside your value?  Only focusing on fiction and not consuming any non-fiction.

3. What’s an example of a time when you were  fully living into this value?  In middle school I won first place in a short story writing contest and won a free laptop that I still own today. I remember being in the zone writing fantasy short stories about tragedy and betrayal.

Value 2: Honesty

1. What are one or two behaviors that support  your value?  I stay true to what I believe in, and am honest about my opinions when asked for them.

2. What are one or two slippery behaviors that are  outside your value?  I’ve got to choose my words carefully because honesty can quickly become something entirely negative.

3. What’s an example of a time when you were  fully living into this value?  When I put my foot down on making my own decisions based on what I want to do in my life. Being authentic and honest to myself was the first step towards becoming who I am today.

1. Who is someone who knows your values and supports your efforts to live into them?

• My boyfriend! 

2. What does support from this person look like?

• He always buys me books he thinks I might like and always encourages me to write my own and be my most authentic self.

3. What can you do as an act of self-compassion to support yourself in the hard work of living into your values?

• I can try and branch out into other forms of creativity like films and fashion, go out of my comfort zone to find new interests that I might identify with. 

4. What are the early warning indicators or signs that you’re living outside your values?

• When I find myself not enjoying anything I do. Creativity is all about finding something that makes all the other more routine tasks of life more fun. When I find myself exhausted and just trying to get through the day I know I’ve stopped trying to express myself in other outlets.

5. What does it feel like when you’re living into your values?

• It feels like I’m full of a lot of new ideas and actively incorporate them in my daily life.

6. How can you check yourself?

• Most likely by setting reminders for myself or by taking a break and promising myself to come back stronger

Here's a meme in case you need a reminder of how you've got to become who you are now :)

As well as the collage for creativity I created in class!

After School Memories and Adding Fun to Learning

McKamey and Restler, Youth Policy Op Ed

When I first started at Roger Williams Middle School, I was still learning English, and it was very difficult for me to communicate with others and make friends. That began to change when I discovered the after school programs run by AfterZone. Through these programs, I was able to meet other English-learning students and practice the language outside of the classroom. This helped me understand not only how certain words were used in different contexts but also which words carried just one specific meaning.

Being part of AfterZone gave me more than language practice, it gave me new friends and opportunities to explore different interests beyond schoolwork. I still remember joining an art program where we learned different drawing techniques. That experience sparked my passion for drawing and I filled sketchbooks with drawings all the way through high school. I also took part in a career program where guest speakers came to talk about their professions. One day a police officer visited, and another a veterinary technician brought in a dog for us to meet. Experiences like these were both fun and inspiring, and I often look back and feel grateful that I was a part of them.

The programs also supported my family. By staying after school, I gave my mother more time to work or focus on caring for my much younger sister. On top of that AfterZone funded exciting field trips, like visiting Roger Williams Zoo, where I got to see and even pet animals I had never encountered before.

Looking back, joining AfterZone was one of the best things that could have happened to me. It helped me grow academically, socially, and personally in ways I’ll never forget.

Thats why this article resonated with me, because I think it is imperative that we enrich the educational lives of younger students so that they realize learning can be fun as well as helping them find their way into what interests them and future pathways they could pursue depending on those interests.

For my connection I'd like to link a recent announcement made by the Providence After School Alliance (PASA), the organization that created AfterZone, where they share their concerns over the cut of education funds amidst the Presidency of Trump. It puts not just regular schooling in jeopardy but also these after school programs that are cherished by those like me who had the opportunity to take advantage of them. 

Self Identity and What makes you YOU!

 Jewell and Durand, This Book is Anti-Racist

The feelings this reading evoked in me are some that I have realized I will experience a great deal of this semester. I felt inspired, thoughtful, and sort of nostalgic. Reflecting on all the different versions of myself as they evolved and changed into distinct individuals over time has made me appreciate the person I am now. There were things I was obsessed with (the color pink), to later hating it, and even much later realizing that it isn't all that bad as it seemed. I used to be 5, 10, 13, 15, 18, all different phases of my life in which I changed and came to view the old with a new perspective. Topics like these are very relevant now than when I was a child, and they are very often talked about in my lectures and in the media. I think everyone should be able to be who they want to be, be bold, be free, be themselves authentically :)

This is what makes me ME: 

This reading actually made me think of one of my favorite characters, Bon Clay,  from the anime One Piece!

One Piece is a very famous show that touches on topics of many types of political corruption, slavery, genocide, censorship, and the abuse of power by the government. These topics are affecting us and many other countries at the current time. In Indonesia, people have even started raising the straw hat pirates' fictional flag in protest of their government. 

Bon Clay is one of the most authentic characters in the show, they stand up for what they believe in and are themself to the fullest! They are represented as a queer non-binary/gender fluid character in the show who is initially one of the Villains, only to be one of the biggest heroes in one of the greatest arcs in the series. Many didn't like them for their showy persona and goofy character designs, but by the end, they became one of the biggest legends in the anime. 

    One of their most famous quotes is:

"One may stray from the path of a man, one may stray from the path of a woman, but there is no straying from the path of a human!"