The surroundings one grows up in create a background that indirectly forms the character of a person. Despite their ambitions, their neighbors, having various social statuses, levels of income, and attitudes to crime, drugs, and violence, might stagnate a person’s plans and influence their manners and attitudes to social norms. I grew up in a neighborhood with a low crime rate, with people of high-income levels. I believe these factors impacted my life orientations, preferences, attitude to education, and hobbies. One might argue that neighborhood does not play a substantial role in a person’s life if their parents have taught and guided them well.
However, parents do not always manage to influence a child. Classmates and peers from the neighboring streets oftentimes involve the young individuals in their activities. My parents could not spend a lot of time with me, especially during working days, and I was mostly at school or with friends. A son of a neighbor shared with me his passion for history books, and I was influenced by his emotions toward his favorite subject. The neighbor’s son taught me that one could have such an interest in something, and that is how I started searching for my passion.
Currently, in the United States, zoning laws are unofficially implemented in the suburbs. Despite the U.S. Federal Fair Housing Act’s existence, the problem seems unsolved (Callies & Simon, 2017). Zoning laws are one of the reasons for deteriorating the issue of strict class differentiation, racism, and neighborhood impact on one’s future life. If suburbs could rewrite their zoning laws and provide access to everyone to affordable housing, people of various incomes and statuses would share one community. It is essential to break the boundaries between poor and rich people to let children from different families communicate and interconnect with different peers. Then, young individuals will have more choices to avoid people with negative influence and talk with others with similar goals and intentions.
Reference
Callies, D. L., & Simon, D. B. (2017). Fair housing, discrimination, and inclusionary zoning in the United States. Journal of International and Comparative Law, 4(39), 1-12.