Confidence is key.

That’s a saying most people hear many times throughout their life and

probably take pretty lightly, however it has more meaning than we may always assume. Having

confidence is something that helps in every aspect of life and is a positive quality to possess.

Confidence, trustworthiness, drive, and kindness were my top four values for many different

reasons because they are all values I have and look for in others.

First, confidence is a quality that will help you get far in life. Confidence can come in

many different forms like confidence in work, confidence in activities, self-confidence, etc and

only helps in every single one of those areas. Having confidence in all the things you do ensures

you know what you’re doing and are accepting the challenge even if it seems out of reach.

Having confidence is something others will see and strive to be like as much as they can. Being

confident is a quality everyone wants and if they see someone else doing that they will drive

themselves to get to that same point. I love to use confidence in golf by knowing what I’m going

to do and having a plan of how I’ll execute it. It helps me hit better shots and be more successful.

I’ve also had to use confidence in work when I had to train someone new and tell people about

how their finances work. Working at a bank at such a young age has forced me to be more grown

up and adult-like with the way I talk and approach situations. I have definitely learned how to be

more confident over the last two years in working there.

Second, drive was another value in my top four. Drive is something I think is super

important and crucial to being a successful person. Being driven helps you get things done,

accomplish goals, and live a more stress free life. I consider myself a very driven person which

makes it hard during golf season to get things done and stay on top of my work. I become very

conflicted with where to put my time and where to put that drive. I am probably putting too

much of my effort into golf and not enough of it into my school work causing myself to become
behind and slacking. I am sitting with a giant list of to-do’s that have yet to get done because golf

has taken up at least two days a week since the beginning of August.

Next, trustworthiness was in my top two values for many reasons. Trustworthiness comes

into play in every part of your life- work, relationships, school, sports, etc. Like I mentioned

previously, I am missing a lot of school right now due to golf but my teachers are trusting that I

will get my work done and meet the expectations even if it is a few days past due. In

relationships you have to be able to trust the other person and when that trust is broken it can be

really hard to come back from that. The same things go for work and school, if you are late how

are people going to know you’ll make it on time the next time. Trust is super crucial to every part

of life and everyone you come into contact with. I don’t want to engage and have conversations

with people I can’t trust. Having conversations with people you don’t fully trust always leaves

that thought of how much you should or shouldn’t say as you don’t know if it’ll go past our

interaction. I consider myself a very trustworthy person in life as I am reliable and keep to

myself for the most part. The reason I picked confidence over trustworthiness is because I feel

that I’m lacking in a little bit of confidence as I tend to overthink and overanalyze a lot so that is

something I’m working on myself and look for a lot in others.

Finally, kindness was the last value in my top four. Kindness is something I value a lot

because everyone is battling things they may not always talk about and the best thing you can do

is be kind to them. Kindness is also something I will have to take into education as every person

comes from a different background and that’s okay. I try to kill everyone with kindness as that’s

something I’ve always been told and taught growing up. Everyday before getting dropped off at

elementary school my parent dropping me off would tell me to be kind and compliment someone

every single day. I carried that on through middle school decently well but have definitely begun
letting that slip through the cracks a little bit in high school. I still think I’m a kind individual but

I think I could do a better job being more intentional about it everyday.

In conclusion, I hold a lot of values really close to my heart making it hard for me to just

pick one. Confidence, trustworthiness, drive, and kindness were my top four in my bracket

because they are things I strive for in myself and look for in those I surround myself with.

Establishing those values early can greatly help in the long run with knowing who you are and

who to associate with.