Angela Cortez

ERWC Period 4

Mrs. Scharf

7 February 2020

Integrity Essay

I apply integrity to my life in the same way that a person uses a kitchen in their

household. As of now, I do not have a particular passion in life to drive me to a specific goal. I

want to keep my options open so that, as I explore the world around me, I can find something to

latch onto and pursue further. Likewise, a kitchen does not have a single meal that it makes.

There are a plethora of ingredients that can be mixed and matched to cook all sorts of dishes.

These are the many options that I have in life to choose from. Not every option is worth keeping.

As I grow and learn, there are some paths in life that I realize would be unwise to take. I want to

make sure that I follow the righteous path, keeping my motivations altruistic. Therefore, I need

to keep a high level of integrity in my daily life. I cannot let my options grow sour, because they

would corrupt me just as easily as spoiled food can contaminate a dish. In order to avoid using

these rotten ingredients, I have to check them every time I am considering using them. I do not

want to be reckless by jumping into something that I know too little about. So, in order to

execute my plan to find a righteous path, I have to keep my kitchen clean. I have to throw out the

rotten food as soon as it starts to go bad, or else it could spread its grime to other parts of the

kitchen. I have to clean my utensils every time I use them. In essence, I am upholding my

integrity with consistent discipline. Just like a chef keeps her kitchen spotless, I have to be pure

in my motivations.
 My kitchen is kept together through its cabinets, fridge, and freezer. Everything used for

storage allows me to organize it in such a way that I always know where everything is - or, if

something is missing, I will be able to tell exactly what is wrong. Likewise, I have to practice

integrity by maintaining my honesty and altruism with everything that I do. If I tell a lie, there

will be something that does not belong, and I will have to keep up the charade in order to save

myself. This is how a lie can snowball into more and more lies. Similarly, if I let one item stay

out place for too long, it will take up the space for other items in my kitchen, leading me to have

to reorganize everything just to make this one error fit. Alternatively, if I keep putting things in

the wrong spot, there will be no organization at all, leading to a mess where I cannot get anything

done. Meals will be as hard to prepare in a messy kitchen as goals are hard to pursue with no real

direction in my life, and that can easily be caused by letting a lack of integrity foil the cohesion

that I maintain in my life. As threatening as giving into temptation can be, it is still difficult to

maintain my kitchen as well as my morals when life becomes more stressful. That is why I

cannot just cook for myself. There are other people in the household who are counting on me to

provide them with a meal - a delicious one at that - multiple times a day. If I let myself slack for

even a brief moment, I risk letting down the people I care about. That is why I motivate myself

to uphold my integrity by thinking of my loved ones. I am the least likely to give in to temptation

in the presence of my favorite people because I always want to be on my best behavior for their

sake. The more time I spend with them and the more love I feel for them, the easier it gets to

continue to be a good person outside of their gaze. That is how I learn to be a good person for my

own sake as well.

However, I know that my loved ones will not always be around. The sad reality is that I

am the only person who will be with me to the very end. So, in order to maintain a durable, life-
long plan, I have to embrace my own independence. This is still my kitchen and nobody else's.

Even if the meals I cook are not always for me to eat, they are still my own creations. I

ultimately decide the ingredients of every dish, the length of time that goes into each aspect of

cooking the food, and the sizes of every portion of the meal. I am the chef; my plans will be

everlasting because of my own independence as a human being who is passionate about what she

does and why she does it all. Although a chef is useless without a kitchen, so too is a kitchen

worthless without a chef. By being the core of my own integrity, I make it everlasting. In order

to steer myself in the right path when the time comes, I have to make sure I am the best person I

can be when an opportunity arises. I do not shy away from trying novel dishes with new

ingredients and/or ways of cooking them because I have to be willing to learn as much as I can.

Only then will I have enough experience and wisdom to tread the right path. Whether this comes

from reading cookbooks, watching other people cook on television or online, or even trying out

something I made up myself for the sake of experimenting, there is always something that I can

learn. Likewise, in life I have to acknowledge that the only way to know the answers is by

continuing to know more in general. Therefore, my direction is guided by knowledge. Integrity is

not easy to uphold, but knowledge is absolute; I can be more confident in my ability to make the

right choices when I rely on the truth to guide me. So, no matter how many times I get burned, I

am willing to withstand the heat of the kitchen.