What Is Important?

Q: What Is ‘Important’?
A: Important is defined as, “of much or great significance or consequence,” and “of considerable influence or authority, as a person or position” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/important). The first definition basically means that if something is of importance it is something that is a priority or something that can make a significant difference or have a great impact to a person, situation, people, country, village, island, or civilization. The second definition means that a person is of a higher stature than another throughout most or all of their life. A president of a company is of higher importance than a person who may run the mail and file rooms. Importance is also defined as, “crucial: of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis,” and “authoritative: having authority or ascendancy or influence” (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). This means that in some situations such as a fire, it is important to have a water source to put out the fire and resolve the situation quickly.
Different people find different things important. Young infants think that the simplest and smallest things are the most important such as, having fun toys that will keep them interested, formula, diaper changes and food, which keeps them healthy. Children think that playing and anything that is fun is most important, while what is really important is education and having someone to take care of them. Being in a healthy environment is critical to a child’s development such as, caring parents, a good education, and a safe home to live in. Teenagers think many things are important, even if, in reality, the things are the least important to young adults. They believe that having the newest technology such as, cell phones, laptops, and iPods, hanging out with popular people, and having the coolest, newest clothes are the most important things in their life. Education is also important for many who are trying to advance to a specific career. Acceptance to the college of their choice can be a significant event in their life. This can affect the rest of that person’s life and many other people’s lives. Adults find other things important that teenagers and the elderly may not find important such as, money, to support their family, family, so they can take care of those important people in their lives, faith, to keep God important in their life, education, because if they are educated they will get further in life and be able to succeed, a decent job, to support their family and themselves, and providing for their family. The elderly find many things important such as, health, so they can live a fulfilling, long life, retirement, so they can provide for themselves and their family, and their family, so they can have someone to take care of them in their old age and when they are ill. Family is also important for companionship. Loneliness can possibly bring on depression and other important illnesses.
Different bushiness can find different things important to their success. A farmer will find that it is critical to his crop to have water for the crops to grow. If there is a drought in the land then the farmer will experience setbacks such as, not producing the crops you need, if they do not have crops to sell then they will lose money, if they lose money then they may have to shut down their farm, and if they have to shut down their farm then the economy will not be at its highest, many people will lose their jobs and the unemployment rate will grow.
A CEO of a large company would need to have many people buying their products to have the company prosper and grow throughout time. If they do not have people buying their products then they would have to shut down their company, and if they have to shut down their company many people could lose their jobs and the economy will begin to lower.
In private schools, education is very important. There are a lot of things that affect this like attendance. If the school does not receive the amount of attendance needed, it would not be able to operate and, therefore, would have to close. Since private schools do not get funding for text books and tuition, fund raisers are very important to private schools. Not receiving these things can cause great consequences to the school and the students attending it. If the school is over populated then they will not have enough time to spend on each child and will have to rent trailers as school rooms.
Different cultures find many different things important. Pyramids and death are both very important to the Egyptian culture. They make sure that there dead are taken care of very carefully. They made sure pyramids were secure enough to keep grave robbers out since many people of high importance were laid to rest there. Art was very important to Roman culture. They had sculptures, paintings and plays that gave the Romans a higher sense of culture and made them feel like they were better than other countries of their time. These kinds of things were not important to every culture because they each had their strong points in society that put them ahead of other civilizations and countries they were competing with. Before the earthquake in Haiti the things they found important were different than after the earthquake struck their island. Some important things to Haiti today are staying alive because of the damage and aftershocks and rebuilding the island’s government and documentation. It is also important for them to try and rebuild since the loss was not only lives but government buildings, homes, hospitals, local businesses, schools, and more.
Importance means many different things to different people and different cultures. It can be used to describe what is most significant to people, places, and things and can change from day to day. With the changing styles and environments of certain people and cultures, what is important will also change.