What's Yours

                How do we decide what is ours in today’s society? If I buy something it is said to be mine. If I give someone a something, then it becomes theirs. Our society is based on freedom. Ownership is transferred by a person willing giving over a possession in exchange for something else or as a gift.

                In the case of Vern’s Volvo he buys a car, and repairs it whenever it gets damaged. He pays Grace each time to replace the damaged parts. Each and every time there is a business contract between them. He pays her in exchange for her work on his car. This work includes the exchange of the old parts for the new. He pays for the new parts, while he willingly allows her to keep the damaged parts to do with as she wants. It is as if I go to the dump to throw away some scraps. Whatever those scraps may be, they become public property as soon as I go home. It was a conscious choice to leave them behind to be the possession of whoever should decide to find them and take them home. The same logic applies to Vern and Grace. Vern left those parts at the dump, and Grace picked them up. It wouldn’t matter if Grace decided to put the parts back together into Vern’s original car because each piece becomes her each time he leaves them behind. The parts are hers to do with whatever she wishes.

                The damaged pieces of a Volvo can’t be Vern’s any more than the new one can be Grace’s. Vern bought each and every piece of this new Volvo, when he contracted Grace to repair his car. Vern didn’t have the skills to do the job himself, so he trusted Grace to do whatever was necessary to fix his car. Grace was merely the “middle-man” in the transaction. She bought the parts, and Vern bought them from her. These parts that eventually would make up what is now Vern’s car are not hers because she has sold them to Vern. In the same way, the damaged parts are not Vern’s because he left them as trash that became Grace’s treasure. He relinquished any right to them that he may have had in his contract with Grace.

Knowing I

It’s human nature for humans to beat themselves up when they make a mistake and be full of themselves after a great accomplishment. Our opinions of ourselves are constantly changing moment to moment, but it’s important to be able to step back and look at ourselves objectively every once and a while. We need to be able to see ourselves as a whole, and understand our strengths and our faults.

True self-knowledge can be the key to success. The first step to making anything better is recognizing its deficiencies. It is important to know what needs working on and what doesn’t. As humans, none of us are perfect, but we are continuously working throughout our lives to be the best that we can be. To achieve one’s full potential he or she must know themselves completely and honestly. Once you know yourself you will know what you truly want and the path you have to take to get there.

I’ve been told things like, ‘You talk loud,” which I’ve tried to work on, but I don’t think could be my worst trait. If that were it, I’d be in pretty good shape. It took me a little longer than it should have, but I think my worst quality may be my ego and competitiveness. I have a tendency to take every friendly game as a serious competition. I get lost in my efforts to win, and I hurt those who are closest to me. In my efforts to “trash talk” I may say things that I don’t mean. The truth is, I’m not the best winner and I can be a sore loser. I honestly believe I have made progress in this department, but I still have a lot of work to do, and the thrill of a healthy competition can still bring out the worst in me.

  My best quality to me is my ability to listen. When my friends are going through a hard time in their lives, I can sit there on the phone for over an hour just listening to what went wrong that day and comfort them. I know at least one person for sure who would agree. It may not be my favorite thing to do, but they are my friends and I hope that they would do the same thing. I won’t name names, but I know someone who had a particularly difficult time getting through high school with issues at home, problems with classes, and all the extra stress she put on herself. I’d like to think that I contributed in keeping her head up. This person is now going off to the college she wanted and I think looking forward to her life to come.

To be honest I’ve never really thought about what my best and worst qualities may be. Everyone has been insulted in their life or been given some constructed criticism, and I guess that’s where my mind first went to find my worst quality. I tried to remember all those instances and any annoying habits I may have that friends, family, or acquaintances have pointed out. It took me considerably less time to think of my best quality. I don’t mean to sound egotistical, I just think finding the good in oneself is easier to find because you want to know. Finding your faults can be a sore topic and something that subconsciously you don’t want to find. Even when it comes to finding my best quality, I was wary about how to write it without sounding full of myself. I guess most people, myself included, are always worried about how others see us, and we forget to look at the importance of how we see ourselves.

I have to say when I first read the assignment, I wasn’t thrilled. Writing about myself is always harder, not knowing how to say things, and how I will “come off” to readers. It was a tough subject to start off, but once I started thinking, it was a real eye-opener. I think this essay has actually made me look at myself in a different light. Not better or worse, just different. I can’t say I know myself completely quite yet, but it’s something else I can work on. I was able to look back on what I’ve done so far in my life. I found some good things, and I also found a few things I’m ashamed of, but I think that’s just what makes me human.