LIFE EXPERIENCE AND VALUES
Activity 1: Essay — Determining My Gifts
Context
This learning activity will ask you to discern your own gifts, provide perspectives on how others view your giftedness, and allow you to reflect on the significance of their views.
Description
Please do the following:
1. Create a list of at least five gifts that you feel you have.
2. Ask two people that you are close to you to identify the gifts they see in you.
3. Compare the two lists and attempt to understand any discrepancies.
4. Write a three page paper in which you identify areas of your own giftedness. How did you determine your gifts? What surprised you about what your friends said about your gifts?
The other 3 gifts I want to be used is: Patience,
Trust, Loyalty
Patience, Trust, Loyalty
Below are my two “gifts” I chose for the discussion and the examples I used. The info below needs to be included in the essay because humor/understanding are a part of my 5 “gifts” I chose. But the stuff below just needs to be slightly rephrased (like the beginning because this essay is about 5 gifts not 2) but most of the bottom part can literally be copied and pasted wherever it fits in the essay. For the other gifts just make up examples or tie them into my examples below somehow. When it states to have 2 people ask you what your gifts are one of the options you can say is the “understanding” gift (like below I used my co-worker/close friend from work).
And you can say you asked them and that’s how you came up with “understanding” and the other one can be one of the 3 I listed above that I didn’t use in my discussion post and just tie it in with this. I am majoring in Psychology (bachelors atm) which requires knowing about mental stuff and that can be tied in too in any examples like “Psychology taught me to be patient because some people just have a lot of internal related stuff ‘blah blah blah’” or whatever helps!
HUMOR/UNDERSTANDING (gifts)
Determining My Gifts
The two gifts I would choose would be how understanding I am and the other would be my humor. I know humor could be a random gift but being able to make people genuinely laugh is one of my favorite things and hearing people tell me I’m funny (even when I’m not trying I sometimes just say things in the moment or more so to myself and it makes others giggle).
I think laughter is the best medicine especially when people have dealt with rough patches throughout their lives. It fills me with joy when I could use it as some form of distraction and make them feel that emotion instead of something negative. I adore whenever I hear the people around me that I care for laugh (even if I meet a stranger and talk with them off the bat and make them laugh it’s nice because you never know what someone is dealing with internally).
Being understanding is something I also appreciate about myself. I’m non-judgmental and always offer a safe space for people. I think that my favorite think with being understanding is when people assume that I’m not at first (because I think since I joke around a lot it could come across as childish and as though I supposedly don’t know how to be serious even though I have a balance of both). Then when the moments arise with people (especially my guy friends) who hate opening up or are selective and then they choose to confide in me it’s so beautiful to see how safe they feel opening up and knowing that I am there for them no matter what problem they are facing or situation they need to open up about.
Determining My Gifts
My close friend/co-worker actually opened up to me two weeks ago about a heartbreak he faced literally 4 years ago (took him 2 years to get over it) and some personal family/friend issues. It was ironic because he always hides his emotions by making dumb jokes and just avoiding serious conversations all together. He had like 20 minutes left in his shift and I got him to open up and he kept stating prior how he opens up rarely to anyone and after he told me some things he thanked me after for being trust worthy and listening and it just made my heart happy. 🙂
It’s tough sometimes finding people who genuinely will listen and care and not just be nosy or pretending to seem nice because some people can be over-talkative (like me) and jump from topic to topic and that requires patience and understanding and some others are vague and don’t really go into detail and that also requires patience and understanding because you kinda have to pry it out of them or wait a bit over time for them to come out of their shell. But I’m always willing to listen and help the best I can. I always try to make people know their feelings are validated no matter how minor or major the issue is.
