Week 5: Adolescense- David Polanski

"Who are you? Said the caterpillar. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I-I hardly know, sir, just at present- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I must have changed several times since then." -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865) 

What a beautiful way to open the chapter regarding adolescence but also development as a whole. I am 28yrs old and cannot help but feel that adolescence is the most challenging stage we experience. Children will go through the most physical change they will ever experience, as well as be aware of these changes. Speaking from experience, puberty was absolutely terrible. Everything was happening and I had no control over it. Being raised by a single mom I was definitely not going to talk about changes that were happening nor want to discuss anything sex related. Awkward. Adolescence is the stage where we start to develop physical/emotional attraction to others. Ch. 8 speaks about sexual identity and goes onto state "Attractions to individuals of the same or opposite sex may be purely physical or emotional, and do not necessarily involve deeper intimacy or love." I feel this is the top contributor to problems in adolescence. The amount of pressure to fit in, be liked, be popular, have a boyfriend/girlfriend, peer pressure, have sex, and the list goes on, it is enough to drive anyone mad.  

Do you remember your first break up? The world literally felt like it was coming to an end. Mixing emotions and hormones together made it feel that way and that is ok. As I got older you realize they were not a big deal but at one point they were and that has shaped us into the person we become. I feel like adults brush those feelings off because they chalk it up to "just being a teen", however, why don’t we put more emphasis on personal issues that all teens face. According to The Jason Foundation; Each day in our nation, there are an average of over 5,240 attempts by young people grades 7-12. There have been significant changes made to aide in suicide prevention but it is a battle that can always use improvements. Suicide rate I believe is 5x more greater than females in the U.S. Our society does not address males and their emotions because for some reason it has not been deemed 'manly'. Our culture gives us an idea of how a man should act and to avoid being ridiculed we suppress our emotions. Emotions and feelings should be encouraged to be discussed because it can prevent suicide or other dangerous situations. "Men don't cry" is probably my favorite saying because it is just pure ignorance. We have all been sad in life and if you gotta cry you gotta cry, who cares? Why are so concerned what others are doing, we are more incline to ridicule then help and until that is solved we will continue to see the issues we see now.  

This stage can be a make or break stage for many adolescence. Our society has to improve our actions toward teens. I feel like the media and entertainment promote harmful things to the youth and they have the resources to access them. I felt I learned a lot about life in my teen years but only now when I reflect back on them. Mistakes were the best thing about being a teen because we made a ton of them and hopefully learned from them. The worst break up, the biggest fight, the ACT were all things that were enough to drive me crazy, but it was all worth it. I want to close with another quote from Lewis Carroll that I could not help but relate. 

“Mad Matter: "Have I gone mad?"  Alice: "I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."