Personal Development In Adolescence

Adolescence was the time for me to leave childhood behind and enter adulthood. This period in my life was characterized by major changes in my physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Puberty began with sexual maturation, logical thinking, and the search for personal identity. Family and cultural values influenced my decision making but overall, the need to get away from my family structure prevail. My physical development was affected by the beginning of puberty. I recall feeling mortified because most girls my age had stared menarche and at 14 I still had not. Per our text,

Per Piaget, adolescents transition from concrete to formal operational thought increasing logical thinking and the understanding of abstract concepts. My goal of escaping my family structure continued through adolescence, I systematically weight all the factors, calculated all the possibilities, and drew the appropriate conclusions. Furthermore, I had a life plan that included getting a job at sixteen, finishing high school, and moving out of my family’s home. I was not a typical teenager, I was capable of analytic thinking some years ahead of my peers. I was not impulsive or reckless, my life plan depended on my ability to stay focused and complete the goals I set for myself. Our text explains that ‘’most older adolescents possess the ability to think more logically and hypothetically than most children do” The Developing Person, Stassen 2015, page 481. I did not care much for school, but I knew that I had to finish high school to get a decent job to support myself. By age sixteen, I took an ROP nurse assistant course that provided me with the skills to get a job. Eventually, I finished high school and working twenty hours a week in a skill nursing facility. As my brain matured, so did my knowledge. I met elderly people in the nursing facility that shared their life’s experiences with me, offer wisdom, and guidance. They encourage me to enter nursing school after I graduated from high school, a wise decision that provided me with the income needed to live on my own. After reviewing figure 15-7 I was surprised to see how the US compares to other nations on their graduation rates for minorities. I am proud that as a Hispanic girl, I finish high school and then nursing