Reflection Of Erikson's Third Stage

In Erikson’s third stage, the years encompasses three to six, which are early school years. The stage has to do with initiative and guilt. Much like the years prior, when I attempted to take initiative and try to make decisions for myself, I was constantly reprimanded. It got extended further though. I have a cousin a year younger than me. She would constantly come up with ideas of new things to do like play with our aunt’s toys, and I would get in trouble. We would then fight and even if we both ended up crying I was blamed for being the oldest. I remember when I realized there was no Santa Claus. It was maybe when I was five, there was a bag of presents outside the house upon arrival, and they ushered us in and ignored my questions, as well

In this part of my life, my parents continued to shelter me, while everyone was having slumber parties and allowed to go over one another house, I was not. A lot of the shows, music, speech, and movies watched by my classmates I was not allowed to, so as a result I could not join in. Constantly I was being compared to the other children by my parents and showing me where I did not match up. In school, I was having a hard time with reading, later on I found out I had a reading disability. My parents, especially my mother, was too consumed in work and her new child to pay attention, so I would just get yelled at for being “lazy” and grounded. My brother had developed asthma and was diagnosed very young, I distinctly remember telling my mom I had breathing problems too, and having an asthma attack once. My mother told me to stop “trying to get attention”, when it did not end, I got spanked for being bad. The new baby was all that mattered and I got placed as a second thought to figure things out on my own. Besides being left to deal with school and such alone, I remember when I truly felt out of place in my own house, at age 6. My brother had a fever, and I was clutching my baby dinosaur blanket, and my mom took it from me. She ripped the blanket to use it as a rag for

Adolescence began in my middle school years and ended after my high school ended. This time period was a time of discovery. A time to define, who I wanted to be and not who others wanted me to be. It began with a mouth of a sailor, everyone was surprised in school that I went from quiet, and shy to being outspoken, and having a personality unknown previously. My mother stopped working just before high school and started to be involved in all three of her children’s life, encouraging us in all that she could. However in high school, I began to rebel with the clothing I wore without my parents realizing it, drinking, and other activity I would have never known to be me. I also began to do more sports, push myself to succeed in school, and finding friendships I wanted. The biggest moment of revelation and identity of myself, was when I realized that while I would chose my faith, I did not choose everything that was taught as part of my faith. The biggest issue was on the controversial gay issue in my family. My family believes you should be nice to people who are homosexual, but that they are sinning and you should not associate with them more than acquaintances. When I was able to form my own opinion, my beliefs completely differ their opinions, so much so that my closests friends happen to be homosexual, and I find nothing wrong morally with their orientation. It