{"id":3170,"date":"2017-03-23T17:59:33","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2019-01-10T22:01:03","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T22:01:03","slug":"you-are-valued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/blog\/you-are-valued\/","title":{"rendered":"YOU Are Valued"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Where do I place my value and worth?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In life, we often pursue the things we value most. The pursuits and goals we value are the things that are the easiest things for us to buy into.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsuchialpha.org\/blog\">blog<\/a>\u00a0recently written by Job Nyangacha, a leader in WSU Chi Alpha and a WSU senior pursuing elementary education, started out with the following message:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe value we place on possessions is a reflection of our life experiences. I value a nice pair of basketball shoes much more than I do, say, a nice pair of ice skates. There\u2019s nothing wrong with ice skates or ice-skating, but in my past, I have put much more worth \u2013both mentally and monetarily \u2013in what I wear on the court as opposed to what I wear on the ice. Someone with a hockey or figure skating background might have it flipped \u2013new skates over new LeBron\u2019s. \u00a0It\u2019s this reason why we are able to rationalize certain purchases over others, and why we can have a &#8216;favorite&#8217; of something even though there are other options available.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The part of Job\u2019s message that stuck out to me the most was, \u201cThe value we place on possessions is a reflection of our life experiences.\u201d It is so true when you really sit back and think about it. We make sacrifices and sometimes even make lifestyle changes for what we value. We move, rearrange, eliminate and add to our life so that they line up with the things that we hold as more important than others.<\/p>\n<p>However, even though we can value good things, we can still pursue them the wrong way. When you start changing your morals and saying \u201cOK\u201d to things that you would have never allowed in your life, it becomes a potentially dangerous pursuit.<\/p>\n<p>In my past, I have struggled with being a people-pleaser and living for the acceptance of other people. Don\u2019t get me wrong; being like by others is not a bad thing to value. Until, however, it is pursued the wrong way and valued over things that it shouldn\u2019t be valued over. Rapper Lecrae sums this idea up perfectly in his autobiography Unashamed: \u201cIf you live for people\u2019s acceptance, you will die from their rejection.\u201d Dang. I don\u2019t know about you, but that really hit home for me. I mean, this pursuit definitely feels good for a while; always having people to hang out with, always being social, always being the life of the party. In the end, however, that \u201cfeel good\u201d feeling runs dry and is replaced by emptiness and loneliness. You\u2019ll start thinking things like \u201cWhy do I feel so lonely when so many people like me and like being around me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is in these moments that I would to resort to questions like:<\/p>\n<p><em>Do I matter?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Do I have value?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>These are two questions that we often seek answers to as we grow up. It is when these questions are left unanswered that we start to identify with the labels society puts on us or we put on ourselves. We start to believe we deserve less and in turn settle for whatever the world throws at us.<\/p>\n<p>However, it doesn\u2019t have to be that way. I\u2019m here to tell you that those labels are not who you are. Let me say it again, <strong>those labels do not define who you are.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Friday, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsuchialpha.org\">WSU Chi Alpha<\/a> will be partnering with the Minneapolis, MN non-profit organization Valued and will be hosting The Valued Events on campus, for both men and women.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3173\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/17474193_10208871638653617_803707872_o-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3173\" class=\"wp-image-3173 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/17474193_10208871638653617_803707872_o-2.jpg\" alt=\"Last year's Women's Valued Event was an awesome experience!\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/17474193_10208871638653617_803707872_o-2.jpg 400w, https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/17474193_10208871638653617_803707872_o-2-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3173\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last year&#8217;s Women&#8217;s Valued Event was an awesome experience!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Valued Events were created to put an end to men and women living lives that don\u2019t reflect their true identity of being valued.<\/p>\n<p>We want you to know that your life does hold incredible value, despite past circumstances or past mistakes. Regardless of what you\u2019ve done or what\u2019s been done to you.\u00a0No matter where you\u2019ve been or where you are now&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU ARE VALUED.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would highly recommend that if you\u2019re reading this, you make the effort to attend. We all have questions about what our value is and the things that we value, and hearing from two WSU Chi Alpha alumni \u2013Sarah Thewis and Eric Kuhn \u2013it will be a great place to have these questions answered. I hope you find the time to make it this Friday; it\u2019s going to be a great time for both the guys and the ladies!<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/597172607152659\/\">Women&#8217;s Valued Event<\/a> will be held Friday, March 24 from 7-9pm in SLC 120, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/777269125757390\/\">Men&#8217;s Valued Event<\/a> will be held from 6-9pm at The Edge on Main Street by campus.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-video\" data-allowfullscreen=\"true\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wsuchialpha\/videos\/859307597543238\/\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"fb-video\" data-allowfullscreen=\"true\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wsuchialpha\/videos\/858961360911195\/\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where do I place my value and worth? In life, we often pursue the things we value most. The pursuits and goals we value are the things that are the easiest things for us to buy into. A\u00a0blog\u00a0recently written by Job Nyangacha, a leader in WSU Chi Alpha and a WSU senior pursuing elementary education, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[510,508,512,509,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotional","category-intellectual","category-social","category-spiritual","category-clubs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/17474193_10208871638653617_803707872_o-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PQJv-P8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3176,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/3176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}