Work Hard, Play Harder

A personal value system is a set of principles or ideals that drive and/or guide your
behavior. Your personal value system gives you structure and purpose by helping you determine
what is meaningful and important to you. It helps you express who you are and what you stand
for. My title demonstrates the value I have a balanced life with both meaningful work and play.
At the ripe age of sixteen, play is much more appealing; although the play is much more
fulfilling when I have earned it with some degree of good work. Among my core values are
family, travel, life experiences, humour and friendship. You might notice that my most cherished
values are interrelated.

Family is base from which all other values grow. Family has had a big influence on how I
experience the world and what values hold importance for me.They are the first people you
know, and they inadvertently provide you with a lense through which you see the world. I come
from a family of strong women. My grandmother (my dads mother) and mother have both been
active members of Amnesty International for years. Sometimes I go with them to meetings, and
they both beam with pride. My grandmother went to law school while raising four children, all of
which now have meaningful work and rewarding family lives. She is kind and sweet, but also
strong and smart. Once she graduated she didnt chase the money but went into family law and
public defense. My mother taught me about the honor of charity and working hard for what you
believe in. She works for people rather than money. She runs a couple small businesses part
time, but dedicates most of her time to helping others. She has volunteered for NDP for the sole
purpose of doing good, although I believe she is too pure for politics. She runs a fitness class for
the elderly weekly. She charges a couple of dollars, even though she has her university degree
and could definitely charge much more. Her purpose is is to help keep people active and healthy
so they can lead an enjoyable life for longer. I often joke that what money she does from the
fitness classes, she uses to sponsor children in Bangladesh. My dad has instilled within him the
compassion and conviction of his mother. My dad preaches self awareness. He is flawed, I am
flawed, but if we know how we will always have the chance to improve. Recently I managed to
drag him out to the womens march. It meant alot to me that he came, because it was not exactly
his ideal way to spend his Saturday, what he describes as his most relaxed and favourite day of
the week. Nevertheless he came and he enjoyed himself, and he marched for my rights, my
moms rights, the rights of my sister, my grandmothers rights. Together we marched for
equality. The next day I called my grandmother to tell her about the march and she was really
proud and she said Jami, I think youre going to have and interesting life. This was very cool
to hear from my grandmother because she has long since been advocating for human rights. It
was only after the march that I realized that having my father march with me was a bit of an
anomaly. Speaking with friends at a later time, several explained that their fathers grew
contemptuous if they even talked about womens rights. My dad tells me I can be and do
whatever I want as long as I work hard for what is right, oh and get good grades in school.
Sometimes I take for granted how lucky I am that my family is solid and strong. My parents will
support me in what I do, as long as they believe, that I believe that I am doing it with integrity
and compassion. My mom fought hard to get me into the french school system, knowing it would
help me secure a better future later on and expand my ability to connect with people. She took
french lessons, and practiced hard so that she could prove she was somewhat bilingual, even
though she didn't speak a lick of French. My dad pushes me to try new sports, always supporting
whichever one Im taken with at the time. I have learned that my parents will go to the ends of
the Earth for me to experience life to the fullest, and I love them for it.

Travel is a gateway to various cultures and unforgettable experiences that I wouldnt

have otherwise. I come from a family of travelers. My mothers parents immigrated to Canada
from India when my mom was six. My papa went from being quite wealthy, to working three
jobs to get by. My nana went from being treated like royalty within her community, to being just
another brown person in Toronto. My grandparents worked their butts off, and are now quite
well off by our standards. They left a cushy life, to travel across the world to give their children
more opportunity, knowing full well it would be difficult. They have no false pride. When I was
five, I lived for five months with my Nana and Papa in Panjim where my nana grew up.
Everyday my nana was brought fish and fruit from adoring locals. Sometimes she was even
brought contraband moonshine. She was my hero to say the least. Ive had the opportunity to
walk the streets of the village in Goa with my Papa where he grew up. Ive spent countless hours
on the beach where my papa used to play soccer with his friends and brothers. Now my Papa is
95, and my Nana is 83. Their health is poor, and my papa is hanging on and my Nanas health is
very unstable. The days of visiting my Papas childhood neighbors and eating pomegranates
while my Nana has an oil massage may be over, but I will always have these memories. I didnt
realize at the time how invaluable they really were. I have these memories, and the feeling of
innocent happiness that go with them because my parents gave me the opportunity to travel and
see the world from such a young age. They gave me the opportunity to get to know my Nana and
Papa from before they came to Canada. My parents are veteran world travellers. When they were
younger, they had both travelled quite a bit with friends. They decided they would travel for six
months together to Fiji and New Zealand, and if they still liked each other after theyd get
married. I am the product of travel. Over a year and a half of my life has been spent traveling.
Last year, my parents took my siblings, Tristan and Kieran and I around the world for a year.
Theyre belief that travel is an important education in the school of life has no doubt shaped my
view of it. I personally love travel because it gives you lots of time to immerse yourself in
something completely different from what you know. It gives you time to think. You are free of
the distractions, or even the chains of regular life.

Life experiences trump (pardon my language) material things. Freedom is greater than
objects. Id rather spend my money on live music and travel. My nana always says money
comes, and money goes, placing it at a low priority. Both my parents are fiscally conservative.
Instead of opting for a bigger house, and fancy cars, they have put it toward our sports, our
education, our overall experiences, our travel. Everyday when I wake up I see the writing on my
wall , which tells me toMake everyday a story worth telling. This is something to live by. I like
to have good time and connect with people over meaningful conversations or even some silly
storytelling. When you travel, and go to live shows, you meet like minded people and experience
moments that are unique and special. You form deep connections, which I believe is one of the
most amazing things about being human. I once told Meredith my drug of choice is human
connection. She informed me that it was a rather cheesy, but adorable thing to say. Either way I
stand by it.

Humour is an integral part of happiness. It is a way of of bringing laughter to myself and

passing it on to others through self deprecating stories. Laughter makes everything worthwhile. I
find it so cool that you can have a horrible experience and laugh about it later. Its interesting to
think that sometimes you have to laugh to stop yourself from crying. When I was travelling with
my family, it would not have been the experience that it was without the daily laughter. Without
humour, its creepy and awkward when an inebriated indian grabs your dad's face and looks deep
into his baby blue eyes while his friend asks for your number. Without humour life would be
dull, and this piece of the world essential for human connection would be lost.

A friendship is a relationship. It is a relationship between two people that consists of

mutual trust and love. I have great friends, and I love making new friends. My friends are truly
special, because we recognize each other's differences and we dont only accept them, but we
celebrate them. An important factor, as in any relationship, is identifying that sometimes we
wont agree, and maybe we may have different beliefs, but what keeps us together is always
being respectful, and having a similar or shared value system. Each friendship I have had
throughout my sixteen years of living has been unique. I have old friends, like Meredith who I
have known for years but we have nonetheless kept our friendship interesting and fresh.
Meredith and I havent gone to the same school since grade eight, but she has nonetheless
remained my closest friend. We do not need to see each other everyday to know how important
our friendship is. I realized our friendship was solid, when I left for a year to travel, and I came
back and to realize nothing had changed. There was no disconnect or awkwardness, just a feeling
of home. It messed with my brain, because it seemed inconceivable that I actually hadnt seen
her for an entire year. Then I make the new friends, who might have only been in my life for a
short amount of time, and were still getting to know each other, but theyre already lighting up
my world. Esther for example makes me smile everyday. She adds something special to my life,
encouraging me to be myself . Then I have Kristie, who welcomed me to a new school where I
didnt know anybody and included me in any way she could. She gives me so much hope in
humanity, she is so kind. I may not believe in organized religion, but I believe and Kristie, who
she is, how she treats people. She is my Jesus. There are friends met while travelling, who you
have only known for a couple days, or a couple hours, but youve connected on a level that is so
valid. Then there is global, which has already graced me with so many friends. Friends that I will
grow closer with, as we work, create and experience together. For me, friendship is experiences
you wouldnt have otherwise, laughter that makes you choke on your drink ;and hugs, and lots of
them that give you a sense of belonging. Without the friendships I have made, my life would be
bland. Friends are the people that make anything you do worthwhile. They lift you up.
 A value that I have noticed missing is sports. I do value sports because they are a part of
my everyday life. The thing is, it is very difficult to compare to my core values. Although aspects
of sports do contain core values such as friendship, life experience and family. Not to mentions,
they allow me to form friendships and stay fit. I am competitive and athletic in nature, and I
enjoy almost all sports. The reason why sports is not one of my core values, is because I think I
could live without it if I had to. I wouldnt want to, but it is not on par with values such as friends
and family etc. It is however interconnected with my values because I have played sports with
family and friends all throughout my life. Sports teach you to fight for what you believe in,
whether youre going to win or not. It reveals character and lack thereof. Oftentimes people
always want to join the winning side. If you play sports throughout your life you are sometimes
on weak teams, and sometimes on strong teams, but it teaches you how to behave in both
situations. Although perhaps you learn more from losing than you do from winning. In sports
you make lifelong friends because you are working towards a common goal, something tangible.
The negative side of sports is you witness corruption of adults at a young age. Sport shows your
true character in tough situations, so consequently you also see things that can be quite ugly.
Also, competition could be seen as a zero sum activity seeing as there is always a loser and a
winner.

My Nana and Papa are catholic because they both grew up in Goa which is an overseas
colony of Portugal, which is Roman Catholic. My mother, although raised catholic, is no longer
because she does not like some of the rules that pander to inequality among humans. She is
instead United, which is basically a christian religion based on love, without judgement that
accepts everybody. I think my mom likes it because of the community and the charity it provides
for those who have less. My grandma is an atheist, although raised christian. She wished religion
was really as pure and beautiful as her mother had believed and demonstrated. I suppose my dad
is an atheist as well, although he says he wishes he had faith. Anyways where does that leave me,
I guess an almost atheist, if we define an atheist as lack of belief in God. Almost because I have a
slight belief in a greater power, but not whole heartedly. It could be either or for me, but I do not
believe we, humans, are the most important beings in the galaxy. I do believe religion should be
completely secular from education and from government. Those who want religion should
worship, it should not be imposed. I think it is much the same thing as Babcock not telling us
which way he votes, or which way to vote, because it should be a decision each individual makes
by themselves. I hope it ends up being something really wacky. Part of me wants it to be our
solar system is just one marble in a bag of many marbles that aliens play with in a whole
different world, and then the solar system of those aliens are inside another marble which a
different aliens marble bag, and so on (Sort of like Horton hears a Who.) Although maybe we
arent supposed to know. Maybe part of the beauty in life is choosing to try to be a good person
and do the right thing based on love and compassion , regardless of any future reward or
consequence.

In conclusion, we as humans are made up of core values or lack thereof. I am sixteen and
Ill admit I am still a work and progress (although some people might think Im perfect). Maybe
as I age my values will change, rising or lowering in importance. Maybe they wont. Stay tuned.