Respect Essay Sample

Among all the six values of Saint Leo University I have decided to select respect. I would define this value as a feeling of approbation and admiration towards another person. Showing respect to someone means treating this person well, admiring and allowing him to be himself. Moreover, to respect other people also means to respect their opinion, values, points of view and their choice even if you do not agree with their choice or opinion. Basically, respecting others is a way to express our positive feelings for people silently, and to communicate with them in an unspoken way. Regarding the Saint Leo University and its values, the university staff claims that respect is very important, and by showing respect they value students’ unique talents, respect their dignity and try to foster their commitment to excellence in their work. Mutual respect for this university is a foundation of harmonious work and cooperation, and free exchange of ideas, many of which might make an essential contribution to the world and improve it.
In order to understand and realize, how important respect in the contemporary society is and why it is a foundation of relationships between people, it is worth imagining our world without respect at all. Society without mutual respect will lose tolerance and will become the reason of moral degradation of humanity, where the core values and principles are selfishness and indifference. Loosing respect will make people to do immoral actions, which will terminate human civilization. It is possible to say that there is almost no difference between animal and human society, if the latter ignores respect as the core and main value.
While talking about respect, it is also important to mention self respect, which is also an essential value in the modern society. I believe that self respect is necessary for a person if he wants to be respect by others. If a person does not respect himself, his values, points of view, interests and his own personality, he will transmit this to the world and other people will treat him the same way. Moreover, being disrespectful to yourself causes disrespect to the world and other people. An individual without his own internal respect will never be able to respect others. Furthermore, living with disrespect to yourself leads to destruction of the personality and your own life. Very often those people, who do not respect themselves, are more prone to different immoral actions and behaviour, and they more frequently than others to get into situations when other people treat them in inappropriate way. Actually, exactly those individuals who do not feel self respect, start playing a role of victim and often find themselves in very difficult situations, like abusive relationships, for example.
However, it is very important not to confuse respect with other feelings. There are many situations, for example, in which relationships between people are based on fear. For instance, if a domestic abuser hits and intimidates his or her partner demanding for respect, he or she will get a feeling of fear instead. I would say that the main difference between respect and fear is that respect is often needed to be earned. It means that in order to be respected by others, you should give them a reason for this. Usually it is not so difficult and it is enough just to be a good person and to treat others well.
Thus, summarizing all the written above about respect, it is possible to say that it is a very important value in the world, and it is a foundation of humanity. Human civilization can exist only if people are able to respect others and themselves. Respect creates a harmony in the world and distinguished people from animals. Therefore, among all the six values mentioned on the website of Saint Leo University, I chose this one.