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born Westley Watende Omari Moore, on October 15,1978. "My first name,Westley, is my father's. I have two middle names, a compromise between my parents." (Moore,6)
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Wes' father dies from acute epiglottis. "He lay in the casket with his eyes closed...He looked at peace." (Moore,15)
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Wes,his mom and two sisters move to New York to live with their grandparents after their mom is finding it too children by herself."I think we need to move up there." "We were actually leaving Maryland" (Moore,37)
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Wes gets suspended from his new school,River dale,for fighting. "A few weeks earlier I had been suspended for fighting" (Moore,50)
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Wes first mentions to is friend Justin that his mom has been threatening to send him to military school. "My mother had begun to threaten me with military school if I didn't get my grades and discipline together." (Moore,54)
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Wes reconsiders being a part of the "drug game" but does not stop dealing.
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Wes gets arrested for the first time because he got caught tagging a wall with his friend Shea, "As I lay on the hoof of the car,with the officer's hands pressing against every part of me,searching me" (Moore,81)
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Westley "splashes in the shallow end of the criminal pool" by tagging walls and gets arrested but not charged. His mother does not find out.
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Westley picks when he goes to school and as a result isn't doing very well. His mother is becoming worried.
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Wes didn't believe his mom would do it, but she did, she sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. "Welcome to military school. Our days began before the sun came up and ended well after it retired" (Moore,89)
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For the second time. His older child and this child share a mother.
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Westley has a set of rules to follow and attends a private school. Which he gets suspended from for fighting.
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He accidentaly sells drugs to a police officer.
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For a third time. This child and the previous two do not have the same mother.
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Wes became a Platoon Sergeant, a cadet master sergeant and the youngest senior non-commissioned officer in the entire corps. "Three years ago,In an ironic turn I was now one of the ones in charge of them" (Moore,115)
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For the fourth and final time. This child and the third child share a mother.
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To try and turn his life around, Wes earns his GED and then learns enough to become a successful carpenter.
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After Colonel Murphy announced that he was leaving the academy, Wes realized that he wanted to leave a grand legacy like Colonel Murphy was leaving..receive my associates degree and become a second lieutenant in the army. I want to lead soldiers." (Moore,133)
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And put in jail for life on the charge of shooting and killing a police officer.
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To Wes' surprise, he gets accepted into John Hopkins University and receives scholarship money, despite his low SAT scores. " I knew that landing admission at Hopkins would be a stretch at best. But months later,Moore,160)
