External Factors That Influenced My Life

It is tempting to focus completely on an individual when studying that person’s development. After all, as the topic of study, he or she should contain a wealth of information about his or her former development. However, that is not necessarily the case. From birth to death, many external factors, most of them outside of the individual’s control, come together to shape a person’s personal, cognitive, and social growth. In studying these outside factors, a more complete knowledge of the person’s development is known than can be learned by simply studying that person alone. In no case is this clearer than in my own development. I was born on March 2, 1998 in a small city in southwestern Michigan. Before I was born, my parents made the decision to homeschool me and any siblings I might have as soon as possible, instead of waiting until I was preschool-aged to start school. They wanted to make sure I had an educational advantage and provided me with as many educational resources, books, and cognitively stimulating toys as the could from a very young age. This resulted in me learning to read by the time I was 18 months old or so. By the time I was 2, I could read at around a kindergarten level. Because my parents did not have access to the advanced learning programs available
I would not have been able to enjoy nearly the amount of academic success I have experienced were it not for the work of my parents, and the many educators who supported me along the way. It is because of them I started college at 16. My cultural upbringing gave me a love for hard work, and the motivation to always strive for more than my grandparents could have hoped to achieve. It is impossible to undervalue the effect these factors have had on me. They have, in no small part, made me who I am