Our Background and Circumstances Might Have Influenced Who We Are but We Are Responsible for Who We Become

our background and circumstances might have influenced who we are but we are responsible for who we become
What I've Learned:
~that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
~that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
~that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
~that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
~that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
~that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
~that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

What I've Learned:
~that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
~that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something.
~that you can keep going long after you can't.
~that you cannot make someone Love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
~that it isn't enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
~that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
~that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

We are responsible for who we become Who am I? Who will I become? These are questions asked many times over as we constantly feel the need to define ourselves. Many people believe that a person can be defined as a collection of all his or her actions. However, this view is not entirely correct. It is not just our actions that define who we are or who we will become, but It is also our morals and values, the parenting that we received, our circumstance, our friends and family and society as a whole that has a great impact on who we are and as well as who we will become. “I’ve learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are.” These were the words of a poet, Omer B. Washington. However, they would only apply in a utopian society, not ours. In our society, circumstance plays a large role in governing who an individual will become. For example, in most cases a child living in poverty will learn the value of money and hard work and as this child grows he or she will retain this value and eventually become a person who values money and hard work. However, an excessively wealthy child does not learn the value of money or hard work. This child will become someone who does not know the value of money or appreciate hard work. In other cases, circumstances force people to change their values thereby altering who they are and who they will be. The law of nature is that we must adapt to survive and sometimes people are forced to adapt to circumstances. For example, difficult financial times can lead people to lives of crime and causing them eventually to become criminals. They cannot be blamed for this, as it is their basic instinct to survive. Rather we should blame their circumstances for who they become. Our circumstances are not all that make us who we are or who we will become, but it is also the people that we interact with that have a major influence. From early ages, we interact with our parents or guardians. It is from them that we learn...