Are We Products of Our Environment Or Products of Our Expectations?

Before watching this film I did not quite understand the question. We can be products of both our environment and expectations. They both matter. Support that comes from being in a specific environment is crucial for growing adolescence. Support in the home, and from the neighborhood with a proper education are crucial. Parents are their child’s first and best teacher. It’s not that they do not care about educating their children, it’s that they do not know. Although some think it may be common knowledge, it really is not because everyone has their own upbringing. 

Everyone has different environments and expectations. Expectations are not born from nowhere, we have one’s we set for ourselves and ones set on us. They are born from what other people see in their own future and push to us. Expectations are externally and internally so important. The Other Wes Moore is about two kids with the same name, similar backgrounds, similar circumstances, that end up going in completely different directions in life. There are consequences of your decisions, and the neighborhoods these decisions are being made in. Both expectations and environment matters. We are products of both.

Personally, I am a product of expectations. My environment played an aspect as to who I am today, but not as much as the expectations set upon me at a young age. I was always pushed to do more than what I was doing, I was to always be productive and expected to be successful. Productivity is a large aspect in the expectations placed upon me by those around me. 

Productivity equals success. If you are not productive, no matter how that looks, you are lazy. I do not know if I am living up to expectations. I would like to say so, though I am not the one who placed those expectations onto myself. I am a product of other people, I am an amalgamation of the ideas of those around. Though, my always changing environment showed me to never settle down long enough to be in one place for a long period of time.


This question means that we can be more than one thing at once. We do not have to be placed into a specific box, but rather look at things from different perspectives. Though, sometimes our future is already set for us.

Comments

  1. Professor KnauerNovember 26, 2024 at 7:43 AM

    Melody,
    While you acknowledge that both environment and expectations are important in one's development and life path, you seem to lean toward (as you say) and give more weight in your own experience to expectations playing a more influential role. I was a bit puzzled by your closing comment: "Though, sometimes our future is already set for us." How do you mean this?

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