A Product Of Our Environment?

Are we really a product of our environment? Someone that I was having a conversation with the other day said to me that he believed we are products of our environment. I want to say I beg to differ in that reasoning. Being a product of the environment in which you were raised is almost like saying you are what you were raised in. A couple of different scenarios, a girl that use to be a good friend of mine her parents had great jobs, they lived in a wonderful house and they raised her well. However, she is always trying to be what she wasn't raised to be, a rebellious girl who lives on the edge and doesn't seem to care where her life is going. Another great example of not being a product of the environment in which you were brought up in, a guy that I know had a rough upbringing and should have been on the path of self destruction and becoming what his environment was. Instead he excelled in basketball, got a college degree, is now successful, and happily married. Lastly I will use someone personal and close to home, myself, I haven't lived with my mother since I was 5 and my aunt and her husband raised me to the best of there ability. My mom wasn't the best person, however, I do love her but everyone was expecting me to be who she was self destructive and on a path to nothing good. I proved them wrong I graduated high school and tried the fashion school thing. I am successful in the work that I do, I work hard, and I have a wonderful life. I fell in love and that was an accomplishment because it was something that she was never able to do. I found true happiness and peace within myself that makes my life wonderful on a daily basis. I became one strong woman and it wasn't because my environment taught me to be, instead it was because I was a determined enough individual who put all my potential to great use. So really its rather overrated to say you are a product of your environment because simply proven, not everybody is.