Growing up
Growing up is something we all have to face regardless of our age, gender, social or cultural status. Growing up is a gradual ladder toward changing (developing) from a naïve child into a mature adult. This change is shaped by the influential people and experiences we have met along the way. Growing up is not an easy process in most cases, but with proper support and positive guidance growing up can be the most rewarding experience. Through the journey of growing up we adopt a sense of responsibility and independence. Growing up is the difference between being told what to do and what decisions to make to making your own decisions and choosing the path you think is right. Becoming independent is one of the most frightening experiences. Independence means getting a job, getting a license and making life altering decisions such as what college’s you are going to apply for and what you are going to study at said college. Certain things can make you mature at a faster rate and certain things can slow that rate down. A family member or a close friend’s death is an example of an experience that can cause you to mature faster. On the other side of the spectrum being soiled and having everything handed to you on a silver platter can slow your maturity down causing many to never grow up.
My parents divorced when I was very young, at the time I had no idea what this meant, my only thoughts were ones of a selfish six year old “am I going to get less presents for Christmas now?” A couple years later I realized that was not what was important, fact of the matter is, I no longer had a father figure in my life. My mom was now a single parent raising me and my sister on her own, as many of you know this meant my mom worked a lot. My si...
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...much more independent and taught me to just live everyday like it’s the last.
My advice to you is to stay young for as long as possible, by young I don’t mean immature throwing paper airplanes in class. What I mean by stay young is go out for adventures and socialize, don’t sit in front of your IPhone screen all day throwing fake money or growing fake drugs. Take risks and do things you wouldn’t normally do or can’t do once you get too old. Accept that people will come and go in your life and the ones who stay are the ones you should be concerning yourself with. At any point in your life something tragic can happen and your youth can get stolen from you in an instant. Growing up comes with time and the best way to do it is naturally. Some will mature ten years faster than others but that’s just life and everyone has their own personal experiences and influences.
Long time ago, I was talking to one of my friends Sami who was living with her dad. She is always upset and depress because her dad couldn’t take care of her all the time. She always missed her mom. She wanted to be with her mom. She wondered if her mom still loves her even though she never saw her mom. I asked her, “Why did your parents got divorced?” She answered, “I have no idea because they separated when I was three years old. My dad doesn’t like to talk about it. I miss her very much and I know she miss me as well. I am sure she might be thinking about me just like I think about her all the time”. Her words touched my heart emotionally. I felt sad. This conversation made me to think more on divorce, but I never got time to research on it. Now, I got an opportunity to select a topic to research so I chose divorce. I would like to know what situations children go through after their parents get divorced. I am assuming that divorce might be the hardest thing for some children, especially in childhood life.
“Growing up” is a very broad term that is used without a true, consistent definition. In essence, it describes and encompasses themes of coming of age and the loss of innocence as a person moves from child to adult. In many respects, people view this change as a specific, pivotal moment in a person’s life, such as an eighteenth birthday, or the day a person leaves their parents’ house. This idea of having a crucial moment in life, which provides the open door into adulthood, is portrayed in many novels. It is easy to find a death that occurs, or a specific event that causes a character to “grow up” prematurely, but many times, contrary to most beliefs, that exact event is not the turn of the key leading through the doors to maturity. It is rather just a small push which starts a domino effect. This is the same scenario in the novel All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. This novel proves that loss of innocence is a learning process rather than the result of a
As an adult, we sometimes forget what it is like to be a child dealing with some of the childhood pressures. Many parents do not realize how something like divorce could possibly
Many families in the United States are separated or divorced. My family is a part of the divorce statistics. My mother and father divorced in 2001. I was four years old and my brother was two. My brother and I have to deal with the packing and the repacking of the bags every week. There was plenty of personal and social reasons behind the divorce. Some personal reasons were lack of commitment, too much arguing, marrying too young, and having kids at a young age. My parents got married at the age of 18. My mother had me at the age of 19, and she had my brother at the age of 21. That put a strain on their marriage, and that caused my parents to argue all the time. My father also worked all the time to support us. He was the only one with a job
Divorce is a process that many people in America go through. The divorce rate continues to escalate over the years. Divorce is a serious problem, it is a gradual process that ultimately results in families breaking up. There are various factors in which a marriage can fail and end up in divorce. Some skip the step of trying to reconcile things and make it work. In some cases it is easy for a divorce to take place. For instance, in cases where both parties are in agreement and have no children it is easier to handle a divorce. But in the cases where children are present, what happens to the kids? Both parents are at each others throats or one is devastated from the rejection, what role does the child play? It is a hard thing to cope with as an adult imagine as a little one or even a teenager, it affects them in more ways than anyone can imagine. It can affect them both physically and emotionally. The effects of divorce are immense, it permanently weakens the bond or relationship between a child and his parents. Can lead to them reaching out or looking to others for attention, causing poor attitudes, low self esteem, dropping grades, loss of virginity, use of drugs and or weapons, or in some cases mutilation of the body. There are various effects that children have to deal with that maybe extremely hard to cope with. One parent may say one thing yet the other disagrees and makes it impossible for the child to have a stable relationship with both of them. Children need both biological parents at their side to be guardians and counselors in their lives, to be examples of what they need to do to become outstanding citizens in our community.
Childhood is one of the first biological life cycles we encounter. The experience that we go through shape what we will become. Here in America, as we began to industrialize, we began to have a different view of what childhood should be than in other parts of the world. In Taiwan and in Indonesia athletic shoes are made by children who work in factories instead of going to school. About 215 million of the world’s children work typical long hours for low wages. People in America might find this disturbing because we think of childhood as the first 12 years of life a carefree time of learning and play. But according to historian Philippe Aries (1965) explains, the whole idea of childhood is fairly new. During the middle ages, children of 4 and
My parents got a divorce when I was a sophomore in high school. The divorce took its toll on me. At the beginning, I started having trust issues. When you’re a kid you believe your parents are going to be together forever. I trusted the fact whole heartedly and witnessing my parents go through a divorce made me believe that no one could be trusted. I remember doing things my way because I couldn’t trust anyone to follow through with the task I gave them in group projects. In addition, I was afraid to talk about my parent’s divorce because no one in my circle of friends at school went through the same condition I did. My parent’s divorce led me to having trust issues and made it hard to confide in anyone.
Everyone that have ever lived to adulthood, understand that difficulty of the transition to it from childhood. As of right now, I am in the prime of the “coming of age “transition. The overwhelming pressure of our society that forces the adolescence to assimilate the social norms is felt by many. Just as in our first steps, our first words or anything that is expected in our human milestones, coming of age is one of them. It may variety from different societies, religious responsibility or modern legal convention; everyone had to reach this point eventually.
Adulthood has often been associated with independence. It serves as a turning point in life where one has to take responsibility for oneself and no longer being dependent on his or her family. Early adulthood, usually begins from late teens or early twenties and will last until the thirties (Santrock, 2013). Early adulthood revolves around changes and exploration while middle and late adulthood are more of stability. The transition from adolescence and adulthood differs among every individual. The onset of the transition is determined by many factors such as culture, family background, and the personality of the individual. Emerging adulthood (as cited in Santrock, 2014) is the term to describe the transition period from adolescence to adulthood.
My family consists of five children, which today is considered a large family. Of the five I am the youngest by six years. My parents were married for twenty-eight years before they decided that divorce was the only solution. I was fourteen years old and the one child that suffered the most emotional damage. Because of the many years my parents were married and the wide age difference between my siblings and myself I was the only child still living at home with my parents. The day my dad decided to move out was the day my life changed forever.
One of the good things about transitions is they lead to growth and increased opportunities. An example of this is the increased freedom that comes with growing up.
In the world we live in the word maturity is thrown around and usually everyone has a different perspective on what the word actually means. With different experiences and backgrounds of people presents very different meanings of the word maturity. In some peoples situations it shows that maturity can occur to some humans earlier on in life and some later. Just because your body grew up doesn't mean that the maturity levels have grown.
When you think of the word adult many things may come to mind; age, responsibility, being the bigger person and goals are just a few. Everyone eventually becomes an adult but just because you turn eighteen does not mean you should be considered as one. “I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody 's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you 're here. And when you don 't, well, you suffer the consequences.” (Adam Savage, brainyquote.com) Adulthood requires sacrifice and a good mindset. Sometimes people aren’t shown how to take care of themselves, this being either too babied or not having anyone to look up to. Growing up is hard but no one says you have to do it alone. It is nice to get advice here and there from those that have been through the newly-adulted stage. Being an adult is not just an age.
challenged to transition from childhood to adulthood. As Adler describes it, “For most children, adolescence means one thing above all else: he must prove he is no longer a child” (Fall & Berg, 1996, p.433). Adolescent individuals must understand his or her place within society, family, and community while simultaneously seeking independence in task and identity.
Once a child goes to school, they could express many of their thoughts, feelings, and needs, and they start taking more significant steps towards independence. Meanwhile, as we go into adulthood, adults can choose things like where they want to live, what they want to eat, what job they will do, etc. In adulthood, it consists of changes in lifestyles and relationships. Furthermore, as an adult, life changes, such as leaving home, finding a long‐term romantic relationship, beginning a career, and starting a family. Many young adults first leave their house to attend college or to take a job in another city, and that’s where their independence starts. Also, Adults attain at least some level of attitudinal, emotional, and physical freedom.