When I was in elementary school, my classmates and I periodically received “virtue pencils”, which were those classic No. 2 pencils, but ones labeled with a virtue and its definition. One label I remember read something like this: “Courage: Doing Right When Afraid.” I suppose these pencils were an effort on our teachers’ part to instill in us values that we could hold dear to our hearts—values that would one day help us grow into exemplary adults.

One definition of values is: “words or qualities which describe the type of life you want to live” (Salazar et al., n.d.). As I got older and became an adult, I realized that just a few words like those written on my elementary school pencils can define what I choose to value in life.