Sean Covey's Argument Essay

In life, as little as one decision can have a big impact on the rest of our journey. There are many different factors that go into how we make those important decisions, and a major one is our environment. Our environment can be broken up into subtopics, and I think the two major ones are education and the people we surround ourselves with. The environment in which we grow up in has a major influence on the choices we make throughout life.

A major element that makes up the topic “environment” is the influence our family and friends have on us. Sean Covey from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens explains, “yes your childhood, your parents, your genes, and your environment influence you to act in certain ways, but they can’t make you do

anything. You are not determined but free to choose (66).” The ideas and morals that your parents and friends practice, teach you and influence your personal morals. When your loved ones behave a certain way, you usually tend to live that way or similar to it. In the book, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, Wes the inmate was heavily influenced by his older brother Tony.

“His brother, six years older was the closest thing Wes has to a

caretaker during the daylight hours and was fiercely protective of

the little brother who idolized him. But lately even Tony had not

been around much. He was spending most of his time in the Murphy

Homes Projects, where his father had lived….People who lived

in the Murphy Homes felt like prisoners, kept in check by roving

bonds of gun-strapped kids and a nightmare army of drug fiends.

This is where Tony choose to spend his days (26-27).”

Tony was Wes’s biggest influence and he really looked up to him. But since Tony made such bad choices like being a big time drug dealer, this created an idea for his own future. Sure enough he does end up getting involved in the drug industry in Baltimore, which gave a very poor start to his life. Although your peers can’t make your decisions for you, their opinion and actions do a great deal of influence on your choices.

We often make decisions based on the knowledge we have of certain situations.

How much we know influences the kind of decisions we make. Having an education has a very positive outcome in the rest of your life. As Sean Covey states, “In fact, getting a good education may just be the most important price you can pay because, perhaps more than anything else, what you do with that mass of gray material between your ears will determine your future (217).” The book, The Other Wes Moore, also supports the idea of how important education is and how much of an impact it can have on your decision making. For example, Inmate Wes dropped out of school at a young age and never ended up getting a good education. This poorly affected his future while Wes the scholar fought for his education, and it did great things for his future. Although in the beginning of his education, Wes the scholar wasn’t trying hard and it was showing in his grades, but eventually he turned that around. Once he got put into Military school he realized how to work hard and make better decisions. When he had the opportunity to be free of the school and leave, he stayed because he knew it would benefit him. Military school taught Wes many important morals and helped him as a young man to learn discipline. Wes the inmate never got this opportunity and I believe that had a negative effect on him because he was never taught respect or how to make educated decisions. Maybe if he had tried harder to stay in school, he would

have made smarter choices. Your education heavily influences the type of choices you make and how smart they are, which has a big impact on your future.
The two major factors, education and the people we surround ourselves with, make up one reason why we make the choices we do in life. The people who are around us, and the environment we grow up in can only affect our mindset. It will be us who was the power to makes our choices in the end.