Wes Moore

                                                                             Wes Moore

    In today’s society the greatest battle we face is stopping the youth from involving themselves in crime and violence. In my opinion, we are products of our expectations. Since youth there was a time in all our lives were someone paved the road. Someone we looked up to install this expectation in our head from wanting us to be a police officer to being the highest rank gang member. This question means a lot to me in many ways. Since a young kid I always had really high expectations of myself disregarding the hardships I had to go through. When I first arrived in this country, I was introduced to this distinct environment fast. Starting with losing our home due to racist property owners my mother and I were forced to go to a shelter. This was a huge eye opener dealing with gangs and violence inside the shelter my mother and I weren’t used to coming from Colombia. In my opinion, if society was the product of our environment this critical pivot in my life would have shaped me to be a more violent and gang related person. This event instead of influencing us gave us that drive to get out of the situation we were in. My mother without knowing English found a job after a few weeks of living in the shelter which was big break for use since I was only 8 years old. Wes More interpreted that both him and the robber lived in the same area and where near the same age. This presented More with a question how do two people with the same background and similar instances end up in two completely different places? In my opinion this was due to the environment and their expectations they had on their lives. The robber also interpreted to Wes Moore that they were both were they thought they would end. This meant a lot to me because since high school I always felt like I wasn’t doing enough with my life I always visioned with an online company and a bachelor’s in cyber security. Now after almost 4 years of running my own business and entering my third year of college I can relate to the youth being a product of our expectations. If a person is playing video games all day or straggling around outside all day as an adult what do can you expect from yourself. Nothing, in my opinion because they have no set goal no aspiration in successfully doing anything in life. I have sadly seen this happen to many classmates and friends who have no expectations, and no goals ruin they’re life with drugs. Many people turn to the drugs at a young age since it releases stress and gives them time to step out of reality. What they don’t know is that these seconds they’re “high” is eating up at any expectation they have. In conclusion, we are products of our expectations in my opinion since I have heard of many stories of people that were in the worst possible environment and with they’re relentlessness and high self-expectation they dug themselves out the dirt to build a legacy for themselves.