Justin Hyppolite

Are we humans the products of our environment? Yes, it's true but at the same time this doesn't necessarily mean the end product, does it? No, our environment doesn't have to define where we end up in the future. You can't choose what family we were born into, what area and town you lived in, what type of education you got or what type of people, experiences or opportunities you were exposed to. Our parents... Our childhood gave us our baseline values and beliefs. These are the things we were taught and shown as a child. Most people are the way they are due to how they were raised, follow a particular religion because that's all they have ever known. Our early years play a major role in our lives. This does not have to define us though. As we get older, we start to realize that we have choice in how we choose to live our lives. This made me think about a quote from cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, " The notion that we are products of our environment is ou

In the book "The Other Wes Moore," the other Wes Moore talks about the role music plays in his life and explores the importance of Hip-hop, which was extremely influential for him as a teen and helps him build a sense of identity. Hip-hop plays a huge role and acts a "validator" at this point in Wes's life and it gives him a way to reconcile the self he presents among other young men in his neighborhood. We recently celebrated 50 Years of Hip-hop, and its global popularity made its visions of Black life and messages of Black pride accessible to the other Wes’s white classmates and at the same time, his devotion to the form and easy memorization of lyrics led his neighborhood between Wes Moore’s two worlds and two selves. Now, on to the role music plays in my life.  Music plays a vital role in my life. I love listening to music and it's become one of my favorite things to do in my free time. I was exposed to music since I was in kindergarten and now to my age

In the nonfiction book " The Other Wes Moore"  on Page 44, the author Wes Moore talks about basketball becoming his getaway and escape from life in the Bronx. Over the course of his life, he continued to play throughout high school and was on the way to the NBA when his priorities changed. For Wes, the sport wasn't just his favorite activity to do, it was also his salvation. After waiting on the sidelines, he was called in to play. He played his best and despite not winning or succeeding against the older and bigger kids, Wes was opened to a new world. The point is there are a lot of fun activities that people enjoy doing while in any difficult situation and can help relieve stress.  First, walking is one of my favorite activities to enjoy while dealing with difficult situations and it’s a good way to distract me from them. I walk home from my classes almost every day and at first, I didn’t want to do it but after doing it from Day 1, Day 2 and all days after, I felt comf

Many people believe that we are simply all products of our environments. Punched from paper and molded into what society expects us to become. But our environment only teaches us survival skills demonstrated through every individuals’ story of how they respond to situations. The expectations society lays on our chests may influence our choices but we are ultimately in charge of our own choices. Some may study humans for our lives and only gather that we are simply human; we cannot be measured. That answers we are not products of our environment but instead our decisions produce the path we choose.  “I mean others’ expectations that you take on as your own. We will do what others expect of us. If they expect us to graduate, we will graduate. If they expect us to get a job, we will get a job. If they expect us to go to jail, then that’s where we will end up. At some point you lose control.” (Moore, 126) While and after reading, I realized how difficult it was to separate the two. The exp