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Wes's dad, Bernard, was an alcoholic who chose to walk away from the responsibility of being a father to him at a young age. He has no real memeories of Bernard at all. "He had never met his father, at least not that he remembered"(Moore 16).

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While playing football with other neighborhood kids, Wes get's punched. Instead of hitting the other boy back, Wes grabs a knife and chases the boy at only 8 years old. He ends up arrested in the back of a cop car. "..., Wes was on the other side of the front door, knife in hand, hurrying to settle the score with the boy who had busted his lip"(Moore 34).

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Now 12 and living in Dundee Village (Baltimore County), Wes decided he wants to make money and get's involved with drug dealing. "He knew what game this was, the same game that had consumed Tony and but a bullet or two in him. The same game Tony continually urged Wes to stay out of" (Moore 58).

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Wes and Woody decide to skip school to smoke and drink with some older boys. Wes realizes the attraction of drugs which urges him to continue selling, and to get deeper in the game. "And he understood, faintly, how addictive that feeling could be, and how easy it would be to make some money off selling that feeling to people who needed it" (Moore 62).

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Wes lies to Tony about where his money is coming from, which results in a physical fight and Tony giving up on Wes's future. " 'If you won't listen, that's on you. You have potential to do so much more, go so much further. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, right?'" (Moore 72).

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Wes gets Alicia, a girl he was seeing, pregnant within 2 months of seeing eachother. "Within two months of their meeting, Alicia told Wes that her period was late. Four tests and eight matching plus signs later, it was confirmed. They were going to be parents" (Moore 99).

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Ray beats up Wes badly, which results in Wes and his friend hunting down Ray with guns. This gets Wes arrested for 6 months on attempted murder. "The first is that the bullet entered Ray's shoulder and went straight through. No major organs were hit, and Ray left the hospital a day later, so Wes was charged with attempted murder rather than murder" (Moore 110).

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Wes becomes a full time drug dealer, and deals drugs to an undercover cop which gets him arrested again. "Guns in hand and silver badges swinging from metal chains around their necks, the men pointed thier weapons at Wes and ordered him to the ground" (Moore 114).

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Wes sees Cheryl, the mother of 2 of his children, passed out on the couch due to her heroine addiction. This makes Wes realize the negative impact that drugs have on his community, and that he is only making it worse. "He knew these people because he was the one who got them what they needed. It was his job. And it pained him to realize that the mother of his children was just like them" (Moore 138).

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Wes joins the Job Corps, gets his GED, and trains to be a carpenter to support his kids in a sustainable way. "He'd learned skills, gained confidence, and finally felt his life could go in a different direction. He stayed at the Job Corps Center do he could provide a better life for his kids" (Moore 143-144).

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Wes lands a few jobs but none of them pay more than $9 an hour, which is not enough. In need of more money, Wes turns back to crack. "As the baking soda swirled in the rapidly heating pot, Wes held the plastic bag with both hands and poured in nine ounces of cocaine" (Moore 145).

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Wes and Tony rob $500,000 worth of merchandise from a jewlery store, killing a police officer in the process. "As Sergeant Prothero scampered behind the Delta 88 and began to lift his head, a black-gloved hand reached out the window holding a hand gun and let off three shots, striking Prothero at point-blank range" (Moore 148).

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Wes is found guilty and is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Wes finally knows what the future holds for him. "The sentence was indeed life in prison without the possibility of parole. The guards placed their hands on Wes and shuffled him away" (Moore 157).

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Wes is a carpenter at Jessup Correctional Institution, while also being a devout Muslim. "He works as a carpenter, making desks and tables, and sometimes he makes license plates" (Moore 173). "He is now a leader in the significant Muslim community in the Jessup prison" (Moore 173).

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At age 3, Moore's father, Westley, dies due to untreated acute epiglottitis, while in front of his family. "Untreated because of the earlier misdiagnosis, my father's body suffocated itself" (Moore 15).

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Joy moves Moore and his siblings out of Maryland, and over to the Bronx to live with his grandparents. Shortly after moving, Moore discovers his love for basketball. "We played that first night until I saw the streetlights come on, my cue to head to the house. I asked them when they would be back out playing, and they said tomorrow, same time, same place. So would I (Moore 45).

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Moore is enrolled at Riverdale, a private school, while most of his other neighborhood friends attend public school. "My mother decided soon after our move to the Bronx that I was not going to public school" (Moore 47).

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Wes let's his grades and attendance slip as a result of not knowing where he belongs. "Everyone retreated to their separate corners, to their separate worlds. Everyone except me, still caught in the middle" (Moore 53).

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Moore and other kids become obsessed with tagging.Moore and his friend Shea get caught and warned by the police to not do it again. Moore realizes he does not want his future to be like this, and that his future is his fault. "In that moment, I became aware of how I had put myself in this unimaginably dire situation-this man now had control of my body; even my own hands had become useless to me. More than that, he had control of my destiny-or at least my immediate fate. And I couldn't deny that it was my own stupid fault" (Moore 83).

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After getting into more trouble about grades and attendance, Moore gets sent to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, PA. "Valley Forge Military Academy is in Wayne, Pennsylvania" (Moore 89).

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Moore is forced to stay at school after many attempted escapes. He gains respect and looks up to young Cadet Captain Ty Hill. "In spite of myself, I was impressed. I had never seen anything like that before. I had never seen a man, a peer, demand that much respect from his people" (Moore 96).

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Moore accepts and enjoys his new life at Valley Forge, earning both academic and athletic scholarships along the way. This made Wes take his life and future seriously. "They made it clear that they cared if I succeeded, and eventually so did I. The financial strain Valley Forge brought on my mother was lessened significantly after the first year, when the school gave me academic, and later athletic, scholarships" (Moore 115).

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After being influenced by general Colin Powell, Moore decides to dedicate himself to the Army fully. "My next decision was clear. I wanted to stay at Valley Forge and attend its junior college, which would allow me to go through the early commissioning process, receive my associate's degree, and become a second lieutenant in the Army. I wanted to lead soldiers" (Moore 133).

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Moore attended Johns Hopkins college in Baltimore after Valley Forge. "I had returned to Baltimore two years earlier, after I'd been accepted at Johns Hopkins University to complete my undergraduate degree, which I'd begun in junior college at Valley Forge" (Moore 159).

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Moore works as an intern for Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, who gave Moore the idea of applying for the Rhodes Scholarship. "Mayor Schmoke waved his hand at the idea. 'Have you ever heard of the Rhodes Scholarship?" (Moore 161).

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Moore receives a grant and spends a semester in South Africa. "I had applied for and received a grant to go to South Africa through the School of International Training, a Vermont-based program that offers the chance to live overseas for a semester or more" (Moore 163).

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Moore attends Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. "As for me, after receiving the Rhodes Scholarship, I spent two and a half years completing my master's in international relations at Oxford" (Moore 176).