Know Yourself

"Know thyself"

What comes to mind when the question is asked, "What kind of person do you consider yourself to be?" Everyday I ask myself how would I answer this, and think about why and how is it I have become the person everybody knows me as I am today. Without a doubt I would have to say it is mainly due to how my family as a whole raised me. Another big influence would have to be my life long friends I have had since I was twelve years old.

My family played a huge roll in me becoming who I am today. If it weren't for their selfless contribution of time and effort they put into teaching me the meaning of life and the right way to live it, I would never be the person I am proud i've come to be. My mother Me'Chell throughout my whole life was the person I would run to for nourishment and comfort. On the other hand, my father Marc was always there for play and discipline. I believe they divided their responsibilities pretty equally because even though life is stressful, my family has always supported each other enough to ease any hard time. When I was a kid and felt like my parents were the worst in the world, I would run to my grandmother Diann's house and she would spoil me with love and a few gifts, and just before my parents would come pick me up would let me know my parents were only being tough because they love me. Her outside perspective always helped me see the other side of any situation.

The other half of the equation that created my persona would have to be my friends. This is because I have a very close group of peers, in which we all try to learn from each others mistakes. It is very important in life to choose friends that have the intelligence to learn from others failures in order to better their own chances at success. As far as my friends are concerned, there is a great variety of personalities and we all have one common goal and that is to better ourselves.

I believe everybody is a product of their environment. So I am very glad my parents had the ability to move to a very nice neighborhood when I was born. I am saying this because I was not introduced to violence and drugs until I was old enough to make rational decisions on my own. In which the first time I ever heard about drugs and violence were in educational programs in school like the "D.A.R.E" program.

Regardless of all the other major influences and events that shaped me into the person I have become, my family and friends by far played the biggest role. I owe all of my greatest feats to them, they are my life's backbone. Without them I would be nothing but a washed up puddle of failure and let downs.