Do not talk to strangers while taking public transportation; do not run with scissors in your hands; do all your homework in a timely fashion. Those are only a few of the many sayings adults in our lives constantly tell us as we grow up. We are expected to follow the rules adults enforce on us and to use them throughout our high school years. However, none of this advice will be beneficial to these young people unless they choose to use this guidance while making important life choices. We believe that our parents, teachers, and friends influence our lives, but we all teach each other qualities about ourselves that we would not have known otherwise.

Here, at Back of the Yards College Preparatory High School, there is a diverse number of personalities and individualized beliefs within the student body and faculty staff. A person’s beliefs can be part of how they grew up and can be influenced by others. A BOYCP Social Science teacher, Mr. Smith, elaborated on the subject of how young people choose who they want to surround themselves with and the effect those people have on teenager’s values. When asked how have the morals your parents taught you affected your life, he answered, “it is not your parents who teach you morals. I felt I learned morals in my everyday habitat”. Our morals are valuable especially between the transition from adolescence into adulthood. We start to shape our own morals through our daily experiences. Even though our parents are there for us when we need support, we form our own morals that best fit who we are as individuals.

We are not who we are because of where we come from. Instead, we form our individual identities as we adapt to our new surroundings and the people who help guide us through our lives. Our surroundings are important because they are not only what is around us but who around us. The people we interact with on a daily basis help us create new memories to develop who we are as individuals. The experiences that we have and the people who surround us guide us to the path that we see best fits our aspirations.

-Abigail Duarte