Status Updates From The Other Wes Moore: One Na...

I just finished this book, and I'm still processing what I have read. I loved the connection when the author went to South Africa and realized how much hate can change one's life. Men are embraced in SA, while in America, they seem poor. Honestly, I shed a tear reading this book because of how sad I felt for Mary and how they never knew about each other until the murder, which symbolizes the difference in paths.

These pages show how important the little decisions in life turn out to be. The author highlights how similar both Wes Moores are, but how different they turn out to be, and the reason for this is the choices they make when no one is watching. Although neither of them tried to make poor decisions, in the heat of the moment, one stuck with making the right moral choice, and the other chose the easy one instead.

The contrast in these chapters is crazy. The author is literally heading to Oxford on a scholarship, while the other Wes Moore is hiding from a manhunt for murder. It’s so sad when Mary sees her own sons on the news labeled "armed and dangerous." It’s crazy how one life is just starting while the other is basically over. Reading this book almost felt like I was growing up with these people. It's so sad seeing Mary.

When Wes was talking about the Mayor and how he was helping the city become a better place, at that moment, I could tell Wes was going to become the next Mayor or Governor. At that moment, he realized that he wanted to help contribute to the city that raised him, the city that made him a captain of the 82nd Airborne Division. My prediction was right because after he became the 63rd governor of Maryland.

Just finishing the Epilogue, I’m reeling from how abruptly the lives of the two Wes finally settled. The whole story is full of "what if's." For example, "what if the other Wes didn't do what he did and instead went on the correct path like the author?" The other Wes spends his days as a carpenter earning fifty-three cents a day. The author served as a White House Fellow and is happily married to his wife, Dawn.

I think that this last part of the book is the most impactful, it wraps up the experiences of Wes Moore and shows the differences between the two. They both sought better paths, but the world doesn't love you, and everyone makes mistakes. Wes Moore in hindsight, probably got lucky with military school and we can clearly show this with all of the latter experiences and personal struggles that he faced.

Now that I have finished the other Wes Moore, I have become way more grateful for my support system. Both of my parents would do almost anything for me, and now I truly value how important that is. In the book, one of the Wes's clearly had a way better relationship with his family, and that ended up benefiting him. While the other Wes had almost no support, he ended up in jail.

On page 145, "Wes held the plastic bag with both hands and poured in nine ounces of cocaine." At the time, Wes was struggling to make money, and he was doing normal jobs, and he was starting to feel pressure from his family to make more. Right when he started talking about his struggles, I knew he was going to go back to his old ways. This made me extremely sad because he was finally getting his life back together.

It's kind of crazy to me how much one person can influence your life. I feel like Tony ruined it all for the other Wes Moore because he got him into the life of drug dealing and crime. Also, I think the biggest difference between the main Wes and the other Wes is that one can get back on track, while the other can't seem to get it together. For example, when the main Wes did something bad, he went to military school.

The book closes with a message encouraging readers to take action. Moore urges people to be aware of how they affect others, especially young people. He suggests that guidance and support can change someone’s future. Even small acts of mentorship can make a big difference. The ending leaves readers thinking about their role in helping others succeed. I have never seen a book with this amount of good in it.

Support is like a safety net, and Wes succeeded because of people like Joy. This suggests that our lives are often shaped by the expectations others have for us. For the other Wes, the lack of a mentor led him on a path to prison. Their lives could have easily been swapped if their mentors were different. This shows that a strong teacher is what creates a different fate.

The other Wes was caught and arrested for a murder and theft crime. He said he was not there at the crime, but a jury found him guilty based on witness testimony and a necklace found with his DNA, receiving a life sentence. On the other hand, the author Wes was very successful. He was interning for Mayor Kurt Schmoke. He got encouraged to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship, and later went on a trip to South Africa.

Everything an author does is intentional. That seems pretty clear for this book too. He goes into depth about the criminality, the brutality, the struggle of living in those poorer communities. He shows the racial struggle, but also internal conflict that he faces showing how he struggles to find his path in life to escape from it. We are shown the familiarity but also how it is so much more than we could imagine.