Journal Entry 16: The Influence of Others

In my life, many people have influenced me, both in good ways and bad. Some good influences came from my brothers. They were hard-working, and smart, and wanted me to be the same way. This influenced me as a kid, and I did pretty well in school, although not as well as they did. Some negative influences came from some of my friends from school. They did okay in school, and they were smart kids, but they wanted to have fun more than study. These two ideas conflicted greatly, but in the end I think my friends had more influence over me, because I didn't really get along with my brothers, and my friends' ideas were ones I had already been feeling. So now I am more like my friends than like my brothers, which is probably why they are successful and I probably won't be. However, their lives have been boring, full of hard work and being self-centered. Their future will probably hold more hard work, and even though they will have a lot of money, they won't really know what to do with it, as opposed to me, who will probably not have so much money, but will have fun, and memories of good times. It's really a matter of opinion which is better, but I think I have made the better decision, and now only time will tell which would have been the better path for me to take