CHARACTER
Word of the Week by Harshita Patel, GMC Prep Cadet
A person’s character not only defines their actions, but their actions also define their character. Someone’s character will help them choose their actions and the actions they take will define their character to other people. Character defines how a person is viewed by other people, whether they are trustworthy or untrustworthy, loyal or disloyal. It is important for people to have virtuous character because not only does it make them better as people, but it also makes this world a better place.
Good character in people allows there to be a more honest and purer environment in the world. It allows virtues such as kindness and respect to spread rather than hatred and disrespect. This is important because there is so much hatred and crime in this world right now. So many people just want to constantly make others feel bad or harm them in some way to get back at them. If those individuals had decent character, their character would prevent them from purposefully trying to harm someone.
Not only is it important to uphold virtuous character, it is equally important to influence others to have virtuous character. If someone is thinking about doing something that would exemplify immoral character, then it would be important to help them improve and show them the significance behind having decent character. By educating people on the impact that their character can have on the world and the way they are viewed by people, more people can become influenced to demonstrate good character. This would be beneficial for everyone because by building noble character, people would also be building their trustworthiness, responsibility, and kindness towards others.
Good character is best exemplified and defined through a person’s actions. One can exhibit good character by doing things such as holding the door open for someone, using their manners, showing responsibility, being respectful, going out their way to help someone, or just being kind towards another person who may not be having the best day.
A person’s character consists of qualities that the person demonstrates through their daily interactions with other people and different situations. For example, if an elderly person fell down and needed help getting back up, a person with noble character would help them and make sure they were okay, but a person with corrupt character would walk by them and not try to help at all. In this situation, the person’s character helps them make the choice of whether they want to help the elderly person or not and the choice they make defines their character.
Whether it is at school, at home, or at work, it is important to uphold virtuous character because it allows us to be better people. It is easy to walk by someone who needs help or purposely hurt others to make us feel better about ourselves, but the easy way is not always the righteous way. Even if it is more difficult to maintain, having good character will allow for more trust and respect to be amongst people. There will always be people with bad character, but what matters the most is that we take a step towards working with ourselves and those people to build virtuous character and leave this world a better, purer place.
