I guess I always felt that I didn't need to say this, but I've thought that many times and have usually been proven wrong.

I don't particularly value intelligence or beauty. I enjoy them and I think that people should strive to achieve them, so in a sense I do value them, but I don't use them to judge the values of people. I try not to, at least. I'm sure that to some extent I do. But I'm also constantly aware of the fact that these things are inherited, not earned, and I dislike people who assert their superiority on the basis of intelligence or attractiveness alone.

What I value in a person is that which is done by choice or learned. I value education. I value skill. I value inspiration and love of life and sense of humor. I value the choice to think. I value passion. I value optimism. I value intellectuality. I value effort. I value the ability to bring out the best in other people. I value the ability to make people laugh. I value the ability to be happy. I value the ability to love.

I know I'm smart and I think I'm acceptably attractive. But I don't think I'm better than other people for those reasons. I judge myself by the standards mentioned above, and by those standards I'm not doing particularly well. I have a very strange sense of humor and consequently have trouble making people laugh, I can be extremely pessimistic, depressed and apathetic, I seldom work hard, and I'm inherently somewhat antisocial.

Lately, however, I've been more inspired to think and write and work. I've been more alive and passionate. I've laughed more. I've been more intellectual and social and playful and loving. I've been working my ass off. So I'm getting to where I want to be. I'm not there yet, though, and I won't be for a long time, and I know it.