Are we products of our environment or products of our expectations?

  As I reflect upon the thought, “are we products of our environment or products of our expectations?”  I believe that we are products of our environment. I strongly believe that if our environment isn’t a strong environment then we won’t succeed. Some people do push through different obstacles that they face in their environment but a lot of people don’t and they suffer greatly for it. For example, my mother went to college and has her bachelor's degree and is pursuing her masters degree right now and I feel like that is a strong push for me to do the same thing. For someone that didn’t grow up in the environment that I grew up in where education is mandatory, a lot wouldn’t think it’s mandatory, they would just live life without higher education if they felt it wasn’t a necessity. On the other hand, a lot of people also overcome their environments but they have to really push themselves to overcome what is around them. For example I didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood and I have seen friends and other people around me doing things and trying to influence me at a young age but I knew a lot of the things that they were doing was stuff that I wasn’t supposed to be doing and because of that it has saved me from getting into a lot of trouble. I wouldn’t be the person that I am today if I didn’t grow up in the type of environment that I did because it made me stronger but for a lot of people, especially young people, who are very impressionable, if their environment is bad, that can have very negative affects on how they turn out in life. It’s very easy to get persuaded by your environment and the people in it. There were a lot of major differences that I got from this video about the other Wes More; they were both raised completely differently and were raised around different environments and that is what I believe decided their different fates. They grew up blocks away from each other but were raised by two different families with two different principles. From what I see in the video, the author of this book was raised in a family where they didn’t harm each other or anybody else and he made sure to take that with him as he got older, he did mention getting in trouble at 11 and ending up in handcuffs but he says with intervention, he was able to change his direction. The other Wes More might have learned that when he was younger but he didn’t take that into consideration when him, his brother and two others shot and killed someone, he unfortunately wasn’t able to turn his life around before that. “If supports aren’t put in place, that compounds the problem. The best way you can help a child is making sure they are coming up in a strong, supportive home. The best way you help that home is by making sure it exists in a strong community.”