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Elijah Fang

Mrs. Hooks/Priest

ERWC/Period 6

12 April 2019

Integrity Essay

Structure

The actual case of the computer itself acts as ‘home’ for all the other computer parts,

which is reminiscent to the household I grew up in. My mother and father are the stereotypical

Asian parents, maintaining a strong authoritative parenting style which would set up the

foundation for who I am as a person today. My integrity is greatly based on the values my

parents hammered into my head as a child; you shouldn’t lie, don’t be annoying, be humble, and

so on.

Style

My ethnic background is sort of like an operating system, setting up the base for my

morality and how I manage the resources around me. Honestly, I have nothing very unique about

me besides the fact that I am Hmong, which is basically a minority of a minority. Being the

oldest son of a first-generation immigrant, my moral background is greatly based on traditional

Hmong values. Traditional Eastern cultures have a tendency to be more collectivist, so we

depend a lot on each other, which is where I think my morality stems from. If someone you

know needs your help, it’s usually expected to help them because it’s the right thing to do.
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Growing up in a Hmong household, those traditions and customs were passed down from my

parents onto me, so I always feel obligated to help people out and do the right thing.

Cohesion

My value for balance in everything is like the motherboard of a computer, in the way it

brings every aspect of my life together in harmony. I believe that balance is the key to a lot of

things in life; you shouldn’t overwork yourself to your breaking point, but you also shouldn’t

live a super care-free life in which you’re nearly hedonistic. The idea of balance can be

incorporated in a lot of things, which is why I compare it to the motherboard of the computer,

due to the fact that a motherboard allows all sorts of different hardware components to

communicate and rely on one another, which is where balance comes into play. For example, the

Central Processing Unit must access the data from the Random Access Memory in order for the

entire computer to work properly and efficiently. Similarly to a psychological standpoint

(specifically a Freudian point-of-view), if you cannot have the superego (an idealistic

representation of oneself) and the id (a darker, repressed representation of oneself) in a state of

balance (ego), you will never find stability as a human. It can also be explained in simple terms,

you need to eat so you don’t starve, but you don’t want to over stuff yourself with junk food and

become obese, all you need to do is create balance to communicate wants and needs.

Strength

It’s very common for a computer to be overwhelmed, compromised to the point of no

return and the only way to solve the problem is a factory reset. Humans have something similar
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to this factory reset, and this is called resilience. Resilience is key to ensuring that stressors

throughout one’s life does not hinder progress. Stressors are going to be common throughout life,

whether its a break-up, a lay-off, or even the death of a loved one, it’s almost human nature to go

through times of pain and suffering. Despite the grief, the only to progress towards the goal is to

get back up and keep moving forward.

Durability

Throughout the lifespan of a computer, the computer fans are constantly ensuring that the

components in the computer remain in a cooler state. Without the fan, the computer parts would

overheat and die. Similarly, in life, if you don’t have a sense of leniency, you would overwhelm

yourself with stress; you have to know how to cool down, just like a computer fan. As a person, I

usually don’t get stressed as easily as others do. I think living life with a sense of leniency is

necessary for a durable life plan, because if you continuously overwhelm your life with work and

plans, you’d be stressed out, just like an overheating computer part. Stress, in general, has

negative effects on the health of a human, so it would be in our best interests to have less stress;

sit back and relax, chill out. Of course, you shouldn’t be too lenient, which is where balance

(cohesion) comes into play; you can’t be too stressed out about life but you also can’t be too

lenient to the point where you’re careless.

Direction

The people I surround myself with are like the users of a computer, in the way they help

guide my behavior and direction, which reveals my life’s foundation for integrity. I’ve noticed
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recently that throughout my life, I have a tendency of trying to ensure that the people around me

are comfortable and generally feel welcomed; I’m a people-pleaser. I’ve also noticed that the

way I interact with others stems from what people think about me as a person. I hate the idea of

someone having negative opinions of me, so I try my best to stray away from that trail by

remaining truthful as a person, which is why I compare the direction in which my life is going to

how the user, an outside force that has a major influence in how the computer responds.