English Blog

Sophie Cucco      At times, music gives Wes a way to process his feelings, especially during tough moments like when he’s dealing with his father’s death or struggling with his identity. Music is part of how Wes and his friends connect and express themselves. It shapes their worldview and is often linked to the themes of masculinity, power, and survival. In the early chapters, Wes mentions being surrounded by the rise of  hip-hop culture  in the Bronx. Songs by artists like  Run-D.M.C.  and  Big Daddy Kane  were playing in the background of his daily life. This music didn’t just entertain—it captured the realities of the streets, the struggles of young Black men, and themes like power, poverty, and resistance. Wes recalls how these lyrics shaped how boys saw manhood—often equating it with toughness and dominance, which influenced some of his early behavior. I am a very avid music listener. More so than the average person I would say. I listen...

 How can our decisions alter our life paths?   There is one instance that I know without a doubt altered my life path, and that was my decision to move from Michigan to New York. I was a Junior in high school and it wasn't a decision that came easily to me. At the time, A lot of my friends from dance were graduating and I felt unsatisfied with my life in a small town. Watching my friends make plans for college gave me an itch to move onto a new chapter myself. I was accepted to Joffrey Ballet School to join their trainee program and it was exactly what I was looking for, but there were many factors to consider. To start, I would have to give up my senior year of high school. Prom, graduation, my peers who I had been with since kindergarten. It wasn't that I felt necessarily attached to school, but the sentimental value of all of those big moments that you look forward to growing up were hard to let go of. There was also the fact that I would be leaving my family. I would have ...

    Sophie Cucco      Are we products of our environment or products of our expectations? I have a strong stance that we are products of our expectations.   There are people that are handed everything in life and they turn out rotten, while others can come from nothing and create a beautiful and fruitful life for themselves. We can be dealt bad cards, but I believe our paths are determined by something so much deeper than the environment we start out in. The people that influence us, teach us, and love us. The opinions we form of ourselves and lives that we choose to chase are what impacts us the most. While reading about Wes Moore and the other Wes Moore, I've thought a lot about my own experiences and how they have shaped me. Through this, I have come to recognize that our expectations for ourselves matter more than anything else. For example, I go to a very prestigious ballet school in New York City. We have students from across the entire planet, i...