Are we products of our environment or products of our expectations?

This is a question I had never thought of. At first, I was confused, but after watching Wes Moore talk about his life experiences and how he was brought up, many ideas about my own experiences started to flow.

I think both words are connected when discussing a person’s upbringing. Your environment will most likely create your expectations. As Wes Moore said, our expectations of ourselves are expectations that others have placed on us, and that depends on our environment. I completely agree with his statement.

I was born in a third-world country with a lot of crime, a highly ineffective political system, a terrible economic situation, and a poor education system. Although this was my home country, my environment was, and still is, the opposite of that. I am the oldest child of two well-known lawyers who studied and worked extremely hard to succeed in their careers and provide their family a better life than they knew as children. I was lucky to attend one of the country’s most prestigious schools because my parents wanted the best for me and my future. My environment was surrounded by people who would expect greatness from each other. 

Growing up, I remember my parents’ expectations of me. I was taught that having good grades was my obligation. I would try to excel as much as I could to make my family proud. Academic education was substantial in my family, but we were also taught to be respectful, have good manners, and be exemplary citizens. Also, growing up in ballet has further emphasized these high expectations, as there is a constant goal of achieving perfection. It is a career where passion, determination, and discipline are essential.

                                      

                                      

Unlike Wes Moore, I do not know of another Micaela Simons who was born and raised around the same environment as me and has an entirely different life. However, even though I am still growing and have not reached my expectations, I know, for now, I am a product of both. My parents are my first teachers, and even if they are not perfect, they do their best to raise their children to become better than them. 

Even though my parents have pushed me and had high expectations of me, my dad pushed me harder. He always told me I had to work extremely hard at school and in ballet so I could leave Peru and create my own home in a better environment. It can be overwhelming sometimes, but his expectations of me also became mine. I genuinely think the sky is the limit. 

Thanks to my environment, I created expectations of myself that will help me make my dreams come true, as a career in ballet requires you to work hard and improve yourself continuously. I have also applied this to my life outside of dance. Based on my experiences, people around me would have higher expectations of me because they knew I would push myself further to achieve that unrealistic idea of perfection. 

If I apply the same question to my environment today, there are different expectations for dancers in the same class. Each teacher knows how much each student can be pushed, and sometimes, they will demand more from some students than others. I think, in this case, this is due to each individual’s expectations already being set because we grew up in different environments and surrounded by various people. Some will try harder than others, so teachers will naturally pay more attention to those who want it. 

To summarize my thoughts on this question, people are products of a combination of their environment and expectations. The people around you, who make up a big part of your environment, will place the first expectations on you; then, those expectations become your own, leading you to where you see yourself in the future.