Celibel Capellan
Prof. Ewan
FIQWS
02-25-2019
Life Lessons
Growing up I would read a various amount of books. They could be about a cool magical adventure, a lovely sappy romance, or even about a person I really admired. Reading in general had an important impact on my life when growing up and to this day it still does. Especially when reading We Beat The Street: How A Friendship Pact Led To Success by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt with the help of Sharon M. Draper, a professional educator and accomplished writer. The non-fictional book is about the three doctors making a pact together and overcoming the obstacles in their childhood life. This book really had impacted my young self because it talked and gave advice about things that my parents had never discussed with me before forming the person I am today.
When attending my last year in primary school I did not have a clue as to how life really was. I was someone who you would have considered as naive and innocent. I viewed life as something easy and simple where anyone can become successful with no problems at all. The only reason that I could come up with to explain why I viewed or saw life that way is because I was never told how life was actually like on the streets of New York. However, that view all changed when my fifth grade class began preparing for reading the three doctor’s book. When reading the book my mind was open to how life was. Life for the three doctors when they were growing up was not easy. They had to go through peer pressure, violence, the uncontrolled use of drugs, and the struggles of being black in Newark, New Jersey. Even though New York and New Jersey are two different places with different street life their book still brought a new perspective to my mind of how I was going to act and do things in my life.
The way that the book was structured really helped this new perspective of mine to become more easier to enact. It was arranged or organized in a order where it told the story of the doctors and at the end of each chapter the doctors would tell a short life lesson or give advice of what not to do or do. Those short life lesson are what helped me change the way I was going to act whenever I would go outside, when I am at school, or at home. For instance there was a section where Dr. Hunt discussed about dealing with the negative aspect of peer pressure with friends that label one another “not cool” if they don’t do the wrong thing and how meeting Drs. Jenkins and Davis helped him learn the other side of peer pressure, the good side of it. Since my parents never told me to worry about what type of people I was surrounded with this section really got me to think of what type of friends I am surrounded by. I thought if I was surrounded by friends who took advantage of my kindness or was I surrounded by friends who generally cared for me and my future. Dr. Hunt taught me to be very observant and wary of what type of people I was associated with at school in order to not get influenced or pressured negatively like he did.
There was much other advice that each of the doctors discussed that helped me change into a better person. Much of that advice also helped me learn things that my parents or teachers had never discussed before such as the talk of drugs, violence, and stealing. As mentioned before I was a young innocent girl who thought there was nothing bad to life, so I didn’t know anything about the use of drugs and how much they can affect a person’s health or about how dangerous violence can be. But when the doctors discussed these topics I would every now and then be more aware of my surroundings and of any suspicious people because anything can happen if you don’t pay attention. The life lessons that Dr. Davis et al. gave really had opened my eyes to see that the street that I live in are not all perfect like I thought they were.
Besides from being more observant and cautious, Dr. Davis et al. taught me to take any opportunities that I have available. When trying to skip their classes the doctors made a pact as children to join Seton Hall University Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Plus program and graduate together. I really did not understood the meaning of their pact when reading the book with my fifth grade class but after a few years when I read the book a second time I came up with a interpretation of what I thought the pact was trying to say to its readers. Considering how the doctors took the opportunity of attending this program to become what they were interested in brought me to think how one should take advantages of opportunities that they have in order to become a successful person. Even if the pact did not have a meaning, the interpretation that I came up with at that time helped me to take any advantage that I have, such as being bilingual. Just like the doctors who took the chance of joining the program and making a pact of doing so, I took the chance of me being able to speak to different languages. Every day I would try to speak both languages at school or whenever I am outside to strengthen my fluency when speaking either English or Spanish. Making this interpretation of the pact has helped me become someone who is able to take the opportunities or advantages that are presented to them.
Looking back to how I was before, I am safe to say that I changed quite a lot and it’s all thanks to reading this wonderful book. With Dr. Davis et al. discussing topics such as the use of drugs and giving advice that no one had talked with me before helped me become who I am today. I have become someone who is observant, cautious, and who takes advantage of what they have available to them.
