the value of my values

So here I am sitting in class, and we are discussing the dynamic of personal values, and how we want to communicate them in our every day life. I am seeing that throughout my life, so many of the values that I have gathered over the years have been a combination of personal intuition and of societal and familial influence. There are a lot of "shoulds" that we receive from our parents.
I feel as though in order to life the richest and fullest life, we must be able to tap into what matters to us at the core. We should (ha, pun intended) take into consideration what things mean to us and not what they mean to us through the eyes of another.
I feel as though we are so good at convincing ourselves that our morals and values come from within, when really if we stand alone from our upbringing and our environment, we will see that our truest importances in this life are different. Through time, I feel like genuine versus not-so-genuine values will really begin to separate...because with each individual, he/she is going to know the feeling when they aren't acting for themselves and will feel that void when they have to question their own behaviors. I have been there for sure. And I know exactly what it is like to have values that aren't mine.
Right now I have a very strong set of values: importance of family, honesty, loyalty, genuineness. But that list has been edited. There were many other values that were tacked on which represented a big part of my life before I became in connection with my own inner persona. And they were: the importance of status, perfection, popularity, success, and money.
I want to share how experiences have allowed me to leave these behind...I do feel like these came from a myriad of influences, but through time and suffering, these somehow got left behind. With my past relationship with cheating through school, that final awareness of how my actions and behaviors were not only shattering me but the people around me, I realized that status just wasn't worth it. All of a sudden I didn't need to be the best, because the road I was taking to get there was painful enough. With perfectionism, through time and maturity, I began to marvel at the human flaw. In high school, I learned that my favorite people weren't the most popular ones, they were the ones who were authentic. They were exactly who they were, and nothing more. And for that, popularity and the need for attention faded. Money isn't a priority, I do want to be successful in my life, but only because it will allow me to do the things that I love and have the richest of experiences.
So here I am, now that I have shed off those values that aren't mine and have finally begun to acquire my own "treasure chest" of what will make me the truest Greer. Discover what your own values are, and not the values for someone else...only the ones for yourself.