Picture this, I’m sixteen, it is pitch dark, the night before Thanksgiving, and I’m driving alone down the 101 toward Stinson Beach. I am trying to find my way to the house my family rented for the holidays. They are already there, waiting. When you’re growing up it’s hard to internalize the changes you go through. You’re too close to yourself to recognize the forces shaping you as you move from childhood toward adulthood. Sometimes, though, it takes just one event for you to suddenly see the new characteristics in yourself. Sometimes you’re able to step back and identify the events in your life that ignite this growth. One of these realizations came to me while lost on the side of Mt. Tam on a dark fall night. The first quarter of my junior
Life is filled with decisions. Minor decisions about small every day choices like deciding to buy a coffee or to go to the mall. These are all choices that will not have a crucial effect on someone’s life. Major decisions like selecting a college or choosing to move on after a traumatizing experience are not favored by many, but must be made in order to Come of Age. In the classic novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the realistic fiction book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and the young adult piece Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson the authors introduce hardships to the characters that require them to make crucial decisions and Come of Age.
Life can unexpectedly change in the blink of an eye. Once it does, you may choose to continue living with it and Come of Age, or you may choose to give up and get left behind. Sometimes, when someone is trying to learn from a mistake that is life changing, it takes courage to keep going and Come of Age. In the classic piece The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the realistic fiction book If I Stay by Gayle Forman, and the dystopian novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, characters go through substantial hardships that effectively alter their lives in order to Come of Age. To begin, the characters in The Outsiders have to overcome life-changing occasions which will help them Come of Age.
In the spring of 2012, I was informed that we were going to move. As a thirteen going on fourteen year old, the news was rather jarring. I was born and raised in that house, in that town, it was all I knew. We packed up our belongings and began the 678 mile journey to our new “home.” Moving from Hartland, Michigan to Durham, North Carolina was not only immense in distance, but in way of life.
When I was little I always tried to keep to myself; I never really wanted to be more than be an average student. I would go to school and would go home every day and never tried to do more. I never was a leader at that age; I was known to be kind and caring but I rarely took charged of a situation and always stayed in the background. It wasn’t until around 8th grade that things started to change, I began to realize that
“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. When times are tough you should not give up.
Arriving at the age of 24 and 26, they knew no one but each other, and barely spoke english. Traveling cross-country looking for work, it took them ten years before settling down in California. They faced adversity in order to succeed, and they wanted to convey that spirit of growth under adversity to me. I realized that like my parents, in order to make the most of my stay, I needed to adapt to my environment. Over the span of my stay, I would come to call this my home.
This book lets others read how difficult it can be to step out of your comfort zone. It teaches you that no matter what other people think, if you believe in yourself, you can achieve what you thought was impossible. Alexie and Junior both wanted a better education, had medical problems, and had family and friend alcohol issues, but only Junior suffered through the big loss of his best
On a warm, early-June day, I found myself packing my things. In a small duffel bag, I stuffed in a few days’ clothes and my personal toiletries, then shuffled out of my bright blue and silver room, down the flight of stairs, and, only pausing to tell my parents I was leaving, out the door. Within a few minutes, I pulled my shiny red car into the drive of the place I would live for the next few years, though I didn’t know it then. The little brown ranch house facilitated most of my weekends and childhood summers for years, but I’d never thought it might evolutionize into my permanent home. In a few short weeks, heartbreaking news and the beginning of a long struggle would transform the lives of myself and my family.
From the time we are born, we are surrounded by people. People we love with all our hearts, and people we could live without. People we’ve known since we were babies, and people we never really get to meet. Best friends and enemies. Acquaintances and family members.
Morris Foundation Scholarship For Master Student My name is Ker’Telian Fields; I’m from the state of North Carolina. I Am a currently student at Granville Early College High School. I would like to tell you a little about my goals and myself. I will also be addressing why I am the best candidate for this scholarship.
For the greater part of my adolescence, I was engulfed by the need to detach myself from my upbringing. Where I was raised, in a small Massachusetts town, the only aspect of the area that seemed to bring people together was an innate complacency to remain in one’s hometown. I believed that my only mode of escape was to pursue a higher education that bred students to be the exact opposite of what I had been surrounded by for the entirety of my childhood. I thought that college was an exciting enclave that would sever me from my past, and make me clairvoyant in eight semesters or fewer.
I didn’t mind taking long drives; I could perch in my car seat, face pressed up against the glass, and watch the trees, buildings, cars, and people fly by like a dream lost when waking. I never thought that I could be one of those people, that I could participate in the pattern of life. However, this habit carried through to my adolescence. As I turned fourteen and entered a public high school, I rarely spoke for the first three months of my freshman
This “small” recognition made me realize the potential that I had, and cause me to develop a confidence within myself that I never had
As children are able to differentiate themselves from their parents they begin to recognize the difference between them and others. Also, between the ages of 17-22 there is a transitional period of about five years from pre adulthood to young adulthood. At this point, the affiliations with family begin to change as people begin to assert themselves in the adult world (Levinson, 1986, p. 5). Next, is the early adulthood stage that goes from 17-45. Levinson states, “It is the adult era of greatest energy
I immediately got to work. In that week, I learned how to juggle four balls. The amount of determination I contributed to this task revealed the potential I had to accomplish tasks despite the level to which they had previously seemed