Wes Moore. The guy that had a lot of obstacles through his life that got him where he is today, but he didn’t do it alone. Just like anyone you need to have a positive influence on your life. It could be anyone teacher, boss, parent, friend. Anyone that drives you to want to succeed and for Wes that was his mother, Joy. She did everything should could for him so he wouldn’t go down the same path a lot of kids his age were going down. She wanted a better life for Wes. “Well, your grades obviously aren’t bad because you can’t pick this stuff up or because you are stupid, you are just not working hard enough” (75-76). Joy is influential to Wes because she knew that Wes had the ability to learn and to be intelligent, she just needed Wes to push himself to be intrigued in school like how he was in music or outside activities. As Joy tried to get Wes’s grades up she finally came up with a plan to send him to military school. “Wes, you are not going anywhere till you …show more content…
Wes started to enjoy reading something he wouldn’t of even tryed to enjoy before. “My mother, scensing my apathy towards reading, had bought me the Mitch Albom book Fab Five” (130). Another reason why Joy is a positive influence on Wes is because she wants Wes to try new things, but also stay with what he enjoyed to do. She did everything to help Wes stay on the right path. By teaching him he could still have a good life and experience different things without those things being a bad influence on him. If she never sent Wes to Valley Forge Military Academy what says that he would of had an internship with the Mayor of Baltimore, went to college at John Hopkins University, visited Jamaica or South Africa, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, or even Married his wife Dawn (158-177)? If Joy never had sent Wes off to the Academy he would still be in the Bronx 's or even worse he would be right there where the other Wes is, in