Week 7- Michael J Harrington

Culture and Relationships

Peers, family, and social life are all defining characteristics of any child's life, and these things can affect their future indefinitely.   In my life I've had many peers, and obviously a family, and these things impacted my present state immensely.  One very important thing that happened to me that had to do with my peers was when I was 13, waiting for the school bus, my friends convinced me to stick my tongue to the public bench.  Well I obviously got stuck, and had to have my family come get me.  They were understandably upset, and chided me for my childish behavior.  I learned that even though someone is your friend doesn't mean that you should accept a dare, and this knowledge has been very very good for me throughout my life, preventing me from going to such bad places as jail or a cemetery.  I think that without learning this lesson I'd be in a very different place than I am now.

My Sisters and Myself

My mentees also have been influenced very much by their peers.  I don't know them well enough to really know much about how, but I can only imagine that they have been influenced quite a bit by their family and peers, altering their personality and person.  Especially since they are immigrants and have been brought here from another place, this meaning that they likely have had may different peers influencing them in various ways throughout their lives.  My mentees had been many places before they arrived in Cincinnati, one of them detailing his trip through California and Mexico for me, revealed his multitude of peers.  I'm sure that this has had a deep impact on him, making him a very different person than  he would have been otherwise.  his family probably had a bigger impact on him since they have been there, relatively constantly the entire time they traveled.

San Fransisco