Integrity

When I was little, my mom explained integrity like this: it's kind of like picking up a candy bar at the grocery store, and then later deciding you don't want it. Except that having integrity means you put it back where you got it from instead of dropping it in the rice aisle for someone else to clean up.

As a child, I halfway understood this example. As I got older though, I realized how many opportunities I have to show integrity during the day and I just don't. At work, when the boss isn't around, I tend to slack off. Doesn't everyone? However, I thought about it a bit. If I were an employer, I wouldn't want to hire a lazy employee. So I am dishonoring the golden rule here.

Then I thought to other moments in my life where I could have been more integrous (I just had to Google the adjective form of integrity). I tend to eat others' food from the pantry when they're not home. Hey, they're not home, they'll never know I scarfed ten of their Oreos, right?

I suppose, while thinking of all these examples, that integrity is "doing the right thing when no one else is watching." My goal this week is to uphold this ideal. Be a better employee and roommate and person. Now who's with me?