Personal Honor Code
Honor can be defined as “honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions” but for me this definition does not clearly capture the essence of honor. I don’t believe I truly knew the meaning of honor until I met one of current best friends, Jake Farias. He is my definition of honor. Everything that he does emulates the essence of honor and I can honestly say that I don’t believe that I have ever seen him be dishonorable. He serves as my definition of honor because of his complete dedication to whatever he is involved in, in the most proper manner. He doesn’t go into any situation with malicious intentions or for personal gain.
The clearest image I can recall to demonstrate honor came one day at a wrestling match. Jake had just come back to wrestling, after suffering from a kidney disease that severely weakened his knees, and decided to wrestle his match in order to give us a chance to win. Though he would have normally won this match half way through the first period one of his knees started to give him problems again. Despite the fact that our coach wanted him to forfeit he refused to, knowing that doing so would ruin all chances we would have at a victory. Instead he kept wrestling, on one leg, and lost. Afterwards, I helped him to the trainer while he cried. Then he said “Sorry”, which caught me off guard. After I asked him why he said sorry he explained that he felt as though he had let the team down by not winning. This was the moment in which I discovered the meaning of honor. This was the moment in which I would base my personal honor code.
As a result, when faced with the question of what honor was I immediately turned to Jake. He defines honor as “achieving greatness the right way, without shortcuts, without loopholes. Honor is fighting for what you believe in no matter what obstacles, however insurmountable, stand in your way. Honor is the most human of all virtues in its persistence, its courage, and its effect. Honor is action, backed by principle and understanding.” This is the true definition of honor. It allows for violence and in fact may encourage it in some situations, as long as it has a viable reason.
Though often the only time I think about honor is in context with sports, this type of honor has an overarching influence in my life. I try to live honorably by simply achieving my goals by doing things the right way and by holding firmly to my beliefs and protecting them. I believe the most honorable thing I have done has been trying to influence other people to live by this code of honor, though I know I have strayed from it, and to continue to spread this definition and air of honor. It should be spread because it allows you to set goals and convinces you not only that you can, but also that you must achieve them through a righteous path. Centered on persistence, courage, and action, honor leads to greatness and combats corruption. It is almost synonymous with truth in the fact that one must be true to themselves and their goals in order to achieve honor. It is this definition of honor that creates true heroes, whether they are lifesavers or teachers.