Welcome to Gaia! ::

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just
to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."

- Benjamin Disraeli

This being such a new guild, I feel the best thing to do is for everyone to start
getting to know one another on a somewhat basic level.

1) I believe I have complete control of my life. I've been to underfunded and overfunded school systems, and thus have learned to take my own education into my own hands. People saw me as crazy, so I used that image to deter nuisances and focus on what's important to me. I understand everything I do has consequences, and I understand the consequences of everything I do.
2) I don't believe there is anything I can't change. With willpower and determination, anything can be done.
3) I've paid high prices in life before, and I'd do the same thing again given the choice. Anything worth having is worth risking something for.
4) I don't let others tell me what is and isn't. I make my own reality, I do not let others decide it for me.
5) No.
6) No.

1)How much do you believe that you influence the course of your life
through your choices?

I believe I influence a great deal of my life. Not all of it, but a great deal.

2)Do you feel that you have a good sense of the areas in your life that
you can and can not change?

I have the knowledge of most things I can and cannot do in my life. So yes I have a good sense on the matter.

3)Do you feel that you have been willing to pay the price for taking
personal risks involved in choosing for yourself?

I have taken the price and accepted the consequences for the risks I have taken in my life.

4)Do you feel it is within your power to change even if others around you
do not?

Always have a possibility of changing even if no one else is. I've done it myself in the past. So I know from experience.

5)Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness?

You don't really have to be happy or successful to have a sense of belonging and social connectedness. It affects you, but just as much as everything else can.

6)Do you believe, at people's deepest core, they are good and can be
trusted to move forward in a positive way?

I feel it's how they were brought up. Any human is capable of being "good", it's really how you can view good if anything. One man's hero is another man's nemesis. It's all relative really in the grand scope of things. So it's somewhat a yes and no to the question.

1) How much do you believe that you influence the course of your life through your choices? I believe that what I do strongly influences where I go and how I end up - but I also believe that a single action by someone else somewhere else could have an effect on my life, just like what I do can easily effect them, even if we never meet or even know we exsist. Kind of like each object has its own gravity force and acts upon anything and everything, even if it's no where near it.

2) Do you feel that you have a good sense of the areas in your life that
you can and can not change? Nope. 3nodding I'm the kind of person that will push until my bones break and my hands blister because my will never will. I try my hardest to help people in need, and feel completely useless in hospitals. So many people and so little time. I feel as if I can help, just not as much as I'd hope I could. I feel like I can always change what I don't like, but sometimes it's better to leave it the way it is. It could turn out better later on to endure.

3) Do you feel that you have been willing to pay the price for taking
personal risks involved in choosing for yourself? Very. If I feel something is worth having, then pain is no consequence. What I gain in the end makes all the pain it took to get there more than worth it.

4) Do you feel it is within your power to change even if others around you do not? Always. Just because they choose not to change doesn't mean they can't. It just means they either like where they are or they don't care enough to work hard to get there. That's not going to stop me from changing if I feel it's necessary to get where I want to go.

5) Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness? I think it is a sense of self-acceptance. Regardless of how wealthy or accomplished your business or practice may be, how many AP classes you took last year or what your SAT scores were, if you're not happy with it? Then it's pointless. No one wants to be friends with a miser. However, many people feel as if they have to be successful before society will accept them. In a sense I believe that to be true; however, sometimes that does not apply. I feel it is being proud of what you have accomplished, even if it is only a baby taking their first step, which earns a person respect. This feeling of security in your accomplishments, not the accomplishments themselves, is what keeps a person connected and helps them feel as if they belong.

6) Do you believe, at people's deepest core, they are good and can be
trusted to move forward in a positive way? Of course. Some take more forceful and more (in quantity) persuading to get them to take that step, but I do think it is possible. Trusted, maybe not. Not on their own. However, there always is and always will be the possibility.

lol Hehe, oops. You ask deep philisophical questions, and I answer the same way.

1) How much do you believe that you influence the course of your life
through your choices?
I believe that life is all about choices. Even when we're thrown into situations in life, what we make of it, and what we do (or don't do) about it is ultimately our own decision, whether we know it or not. It can also be argued that it was our choice to come into those situations, because if we had made different decisions earlier on, then we might not have come across that situation (it's called making your own luck), but I don't always agree with that.

I think people make their lives based on how they deal with what they're faced with, and that is part of what makes that person that person... sweatdrop (and I don't know why I just talked about people in general...)

2) Do you feel that you have a good sense of the areas in your life that
you can and can not change?
I know for a fact that I know much about what I can't change, but I can't seem to figure out what I can change (or have the resolve to)...

3) Do you feel that you have been willing to pay the price for taking
personal risks involved in choosing for yourself?
I'm willing to meet whatever happens in my life-especially if it happens because of my own choices, because if it's good, then that's great, and if it's bad, then I only brought it upon myself, and in that case I should face it.

4) Do you feel it is within your power to change even if others around you do not?
Well, it's certaily not within their power to change me (well, it might be, but only to an extent); if I want to change, then I have to change myself (with some help). If I have the resolve to, then I can, even if they don't think so. But if I lack the resolve, then no, regardless of what they think, I probably can't.

5) Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness?
It depends on who you are. I don't think that, because I spend a lot of time by myself and feel quite content most of the time, but I also do like to hang around a few carefully selected people and feel happy around them...so, no. It can be slightly related, but as a whole, I think it has to do with one's thoughts on oneself.

5) Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness? [u]6) Do you believe, at people's deepest core, they are good and can be
trusted to move forward in a positive way?[u/]
...I don't believe that anyone starts out as a bad person, and that most people try to do what they think is right, but that what is 'right' is different for every person. You have to make guesses about the person before you can decide, because everyone is different.

1) How much do you believe that you influence the course of your life
through your choices?
It's about 50/50 for me. On one hand, there's the "butterfly off the coast of Africa" theory, where the things other people do can influence me one way or the other. Then, it all comes down to my choices. Of course, there are areas of my life in which I need parental consent, but those are often minor.

2) Do you feel that you have a good sense of the areas in your life that
you can and can not change?
If I want to change something about my life, I don't see it as can or cannot. It's my life, right? I change it, then and there. That probably means that I have a great sense or horrible one for that. The moment you feel powerless in your own life, you've lost.

3) Do you feel that you have been willing to pay the price for taking
personal risks involved in choosing for yourself?
Of course! If my gut says to eat that leftover Chinese food from two weeks ago, I think I know the risks involved if I were to indulge! Like there's any chance I'd refuse Chinese food . . .

4) Do you feel it is within your power to change even if others around you
do not?
I'd like to think that as human beings, we're always changing. We are always influenced by our surroundings, our past, and what we do not yet understand. That is to say, YES!

5) Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness?
Depends on who you are. Many people feel out of sorts when they are alone, while others thrive in that environment. By human nature, we are social creatures. We strive for belonging and acceptance as a species, so perhaps this is a yes?

6) Do you believe, at people's deepest core, they are good and can be
trusted to move forward in a positive way?
I know I am a very core-bound person. I always follow my gut instinct for the better of those around me. But that's just me. Others I'm not so sure about. To be a good person, you need those good influences in your life or a will to overcome them. To be a bad person, one would have many negative influences in their life. Remember, there both good-hearted and cruel mental instabilities.

1) How much do you believe that you influence the course of your life
through your choices?
Everyone of my choices in life has a big impact on the course of my life. Especially when I decide to watch a full dvd set of Naruto rather than finish my paperwork. And I'm a Jack of All trades...I think it makes me slack sometimes---that abillity to suceed at SO much around me. I didnt use to be that way. I used to work my a** off constantly to the point that my mind body and psyche were under physical distress all the time and I started having seizures. THough the seizures have stopped and the migranes have set in daily or weekly--and I become unmotivated by the ignorance and incompetence of places I work. I wonder if the CUlinary Arts isnt my passion anymore, or I have become more cynical and less caring. I consider going back to school and majoring in animation, but then everyone says just for me to keep it as a pass time. But then I love health and fitness, so much so that I would do it out of love, if the landlord took a love check. In writing has been such a passion to me, I consider going back to school for that too. Life can be so confusing, but I can't sit here in do nothing--right? Heck even that descion impacts the course of my life.

2) Do you feel that you have a good sense of the areas in your life that
you can and can not change?
OF course---I know that as much as I do or do not want to--I can't change my race. I cannot change many of my physcial attributes and I leave it at that. All things are possible with God, so where I feel I cant change something i consider God--can he make it possible? If I believe I can move a mountain into a sea. But come on---are you going to believe you can do that? Of course not---so you can't.

3) Do you feel that you have been willing to pay the price for taking
personal risks involved in choosing for yourself?
I think I'm afraid of the risk. I never thought about it till now....actually take that back. I never think of the big risk....it always hits me off guard. I know if I dont go into work alot of things are going to be set out of motion, but I cant work in a place where even the owner is uncaring about major issues.

4) Do you feel it is within your power to change even if others around you do not?
Hell in college someones got to start the drinking parties or end the drinking parties. That is a clear example of me changing though the others don't.

5) Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness?
Yep. If I become an Alumni at College because of my current Job related to my field of study, I will feel I suceed because they KNOW I suceeded. I'm not dependant on them though.

1) How much do you believe that you influence the course of your life
through your choices? I believe that all my choices influence my course in life one way or another, even simple every day choices have some form of influence, I'd say.

2) Do you feel that you have a good sense of the areas in your life that
you can and can not change? In some cases I do, but in others, it's still not that clear, but as time passes it becomes more evident to me what i can and cannot change in those parts of my life.

3) Do you feel that you have been willing to pay the price for taking
personal risks involved in choosing for yourself? Yes, I do feel that'd I'd be very much willing to pay the price when taking personal risks that do involve choosing for myself.

4) Do you feel it is within your power to change even if others around you
do not? Yes, I do.

5) Do you believe that happiness and success are largely related to a
sense of belonging and to social connectedness? There are times where I do consider it possible.

6) Do you believe, at people's deepest core, they are good and can be
trusted to move forward in a positive way?