How Much Are Your Thoughts Worth?

Back in my undergrad, I had an INCREDIBLE poly sci professor. I was taking Intro Into Political Thinking and we were required to purchase a journal (you know, the green *or black* ones you can find at a college bookstore). Well, first day of class she had us write our names, contact information, and a reward if it ever got lost. So I wrote down $1.00. And she went around the room and asked everyone what they wrote. Some said, “I’d buy them a drink.” Others said, “Nothing/no reward.” And then there were others like me, who put such a minuscule amount down.

She reached me and asked, “What are you offering as a reward?”

And I replied, “One dollar.”

Before me, she did not say anything, she just asked the questions and nodded at the answers. But this time, she stopped.

She stared at me and asked, “Why only a dollar?”

“Because, I can always get another journal,” I replied. I couldn’t understand the third degree here. Why was she targeting me? I started feeling the heat in my cheeks. Everyone was looking at me now.

“Do you think your thoughts are only worth a dollar?” she asked and it left me speechless.

Sometimes the most powerful thing we have is our voice, whether we scream out to the heavens for all of those to hear or we write it down for those to read. Think about it… In our history books, in the libraries, wherever you go, people have used writing or oral stories passed down through generations to create history. We find first person accounts of the past that we cannot always verify, but we take as fact because it was written down somewhere. It’s all words… Words and thoughts that have been written down. You will always have something to say and that is powerful.

If given the opportunity to replay that moment, I would have wrote, “My First Born Child.”

Just kidding. Maybe not.

I thought only of the book, but not the content inside of that book. I didn’t think of the beauty I would later on create – the thought provoking questions I would ask myself, my deep analysis of text, my humble understanding of the world around me, the chaos of my environment and our past…

I created a book in that class and I’d be stupid to throw my power away for only a dollar.

So tell me, what are your thoughts worth?