Return from Spring Break

     You know, one topic that seems to come up a lot is how we all become who we are because of the environment we were raised in. Depending on your living situation or how you were brought up, you would act a certain way in response to different stimulants. What do you think? Do you think that we are all products of our environment? Do you think our lives were set up for us already? Are we only then limited by what we are exposed to? If people are born in better situations, does that mean that they are better than us? These are the kinds of questions that come to me as I think of the idea that I am a "product of my environment" and to be honest, I find it to be for the most part true. However, I see it in a different perspective than what people expect.

     To start, I do not think we are destined to fail from the start if we are born in bad situations. If you look throughout history, there are countless heroes and outstanding figures of society that used the bad situations they were raised in to become outstanding individuals. These people include the first 2-time African-American President Barack Obama, hilarious actor Jim Carrey, Daniel Craig (actor who plays James Bond), famous Baltimore Ravens player Michael Oher, Chelsea Fearce, who was homeless with her family for so many years, became valedictorian of her class, and then received a full ride scholarship to Spelman College, one of the top HBCU's in the United States, and countless others. These individuals did not want to use their environment or how they came up as an excuse to not succeed. So, they harnessed the negative energy and used it as a catalyst to accomplish great feats. These people, I believe, are aspiring examples of how being a product of our environment can be a good thing. Then again, the sad truth is, we do not all make the choice to use our environments in a positive way…

     We are all aware of the countless slums and areas prone to poverty throughout the entire world. We also know that many of the inhabitants of these areas do not make the smartest decisions to "get ahead." Many, but not all, of them turn to some life of crime, or mischief, to survive. Is it really our place to judge and look down on them? No? Then why do so many of us do so? Why do so many of us look at them in disgust? I am not going to say they had no other choice at all. Even though I have come from similar situations, I was not in their shoes. Neither were many of you who judge them. And let's be honest, we all have those times when we look at them and shake our heads in shame, but could we ever place ourselves in their shoes for once? Maybe then we would realize their struggles. Maybe they did not have the right guidance like some of us were able to find. Maybe we would actually let up on our judgments. Unfortunately, in this lifetime, many people don't think that far ahead, and take it upon themselves to judge them anyway. Sad, but true.

     So what is my purpose in telling you all this? 

     The first is to make you wonder what it would be like to be those individuals that are not as fortunate as we are. Take a moment before you prejudge them in your mind and think to yourself this, "Why is he or she doing this?" You would be surprised just how hard a life some of these individuals live to survive, or to help their families.

     The second is to get you to think about how you could possibly take your own situation and make the best of it. Whether you grow up in a home with a single parent, live in poverty, do not have a place of living, or have some other extenuating circumstance, how can you use your environment to your advantage?
      The third, and most important reason is to, in general, learn to think before passing judgment on others. It's not just in the cases of those who had rough starts in life, but also in other aspects. We are all not the same people, and that's okay. We should just make sure we are ensuring that we are the best people we can possibly be and helping others when we can.

     That leaves just one question: Will you sink or will you swim?