While you are making the choice of life, you neglect to live. Commit yourself to the current World, nothing is more common than to call our own condition the condition of life. Let us face it, some people have bad parents and not so good families, and then critics cast you in the same light and think that if your family is corrupt, then you will be too. However, that is not necessarily the case. Humans have free will and bad behavior is not always inherited, it is, in many cases a choice. The character of each individual is held to be the result of the impressions made upon the plastic material of the mind program, either in the form of past impressions upon, his or her ancestors, or of past impressions received by the individual. Life takes it complexion from inferior things; and providence has wisely places its real blessings within the reach of moderate abilities. A person may change their environment, and by the use of their will, he or she may overcome many inherited tendencies. Free will acts through choice, and some kinds of environments afford far more opportunities, for choice, than others. Take two young persons of equal ability, similar tastes, and the same heredity, and place them one in a small village in Sacramento, and the other in a great metropolis of New York, and keep them there until middle-age, and we will see the influence of environment. The two may be equally happy and contented, and may possess the same degree of book-education, but, nevertheless, their experiences will have been so different that the character of the two individuals must be different. The person raised in New York may become more successful because they are around a lot of successful people, and it is very expensive and more money to be made. However, personal in the rural village, who is driven might have experiences, which slow them down because a rural village is not as progressive as a metropolis city. Human life is like a shadow, no sooner seemingly enjoyed than vanished. Therefore, anybody’s life may be just as romantic and strange and interesting if he or she fails as if he or she succeeds. All the difference is, that the last chapter is wanting in the story. In the same way, place the two young persons, one in Midtown Sacramento  and the other amidst the best surroundings and examples, and see the results. Remember, that in environment is included the influence of other persons. The effect of environment arises from suggestion, which is great moulding and creative principle of the mind. If you believe you are going to be successful, then you will more than likely be. If you believe you are doomed to fail, then more than likely you will. Life may as properly be called an art as any other; and the greatest incidents in it are no more to be considered as mere accidents then the several members of a fine statue or noble poem. Life is a battle; but it is only so in the sense that a game of chess is, there is no seriousness in it; it may be put an end to at any inconvenient moment by owing yourself beaten, with a careless “Ha-ha!” and sweeping your pieces into the box. Just a conception of life is too large a thing to grasp during the short interval of passing through it. Nobody’s life is altogether a failure. Let us take our position firmly upon the fact that each individual is stamped with the impression of a special character—a character all their own. We may not all be created equally, but each has his or her own character or part to play in the great drama of life. The character of some seems fixed and unchangeable, while that of others is seen to be in the process of change. However, in either case each and every man has his own character or manifestation of Human Nature, in its inner and outer aspects. And each individual, while in a sense forming a special class by himself or herself, nevertheless belongs to a larger class, which in turn is a part of a still larger, and so on. The most useful of all arts, the art of life, we are all part of the community and have the right to live and be successful. You may not be from Beverly Hills, nor attended the best schools, but you can still live a good and productive life. Do not let anyone discourage you nor hold you back. The things you do define who you are, not where you come from, but we all can change and mature and make mistakes at times. Have a blessed day.