A Child, Act Like An Adult

When people grow up, they learn more about love, society, and how to see from other people's point of view.

“It's great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn't need a shoulder? What if they need the arms or something like that? You can't just sit there and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things,”. Children mature as they grow older. Manifestations of maturity include; overcoming adversities, perseverance, and making decisions that positively impact one’s future.

Adolescence is moving from childhood to adult. This adolescent year brings many changes, not only physically but also mentally, emotionally and socially (Feldman, 2006). My adolescence was a period in which I gained maturity due to the biological changes associated with puberty. I became independent from my family and developed more perspective since then. I started thinking more about my future goals. I was also trying to understand more of who I was as an adult. In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory young people start to think abstractly and hypothetically in the formal operation stage (Berk, 2007). Therefore, this major cognitive development may have contributed to the exploration or search for my individual identity.

 The world has experienced many changes in past generations, to the present. One of the very most important changes in life had to be the changes of children. Historians have worked a great deal on children’s lives in the past. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”- Author Unknown

When we are children our imaginations are similar to a sponge they want to absorb anything they can, with doing what you want having fun with friends, playing, and playing pretend. We as children need to enjoy our time because before we know it well be working in an office with around

Evolving towards adulthood is certainly difficult at times. It is remarkably complex due to the fact that adolescents are taught so many different lessons simultaneously, causing it to be too overwhelming when trying to make the right decisions. It makes this process even more complicated knowing there are many different views on what is right and wrong. Two great examples of this confusing, but worthy, journey reside in the lives of the protagonists of two classic novels. The first being Pip in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, a novel in which a young boy describes his life as he's developing. And the second is Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel that’s told from a young girl’s perspective as her father tries to prove a man innocent after being unjustly accused of rape. Both authors do a splendid job showing the process of the characters’ maturity from when they were children, to when they are adults. The two characters face a few similar situations, while at the same time learning a great deal throughout the novels. They do this until they finally reach the final stage of maturity.

Young people don’t maintain the same personality, feelings and views throughout their life. At some point in their life, which very often starts during adolescence, they start looking for their true identity. The transition into becoming a more mature person may be very exciting and very uncertain at the same time. It is a process that involves many changes shaped by the family, friends, environment, community and culture. Young people become more independent, dream of living their life the way they always wanted to, they explore the world, look for new possibilities. At the same time they still ponder their personal identity, are vulnerable and easily influenced by others. They take on new responsibilities, face new challenges and make mistakes.

Children, since the day they are born, begin to learn. They learn how to talk, walk, play, and even see. As they get older the process of learning continues as they begin to read, write, socialize and behave. The main goal, however, is to gain information on how to become functioning adults in the real world. Yet, at a certain age, people start to believe that they have gained enough information and no longer need guidance.

Grown-up deliberation is frequently more complicated and adaptive that youthful concept. Unlike adolescents, adult understand the contradictions inherent in thinking. They see both the possibilities and the problems in every course of action in deciding whether to start a new business, back a political candidate, move to a new place, or change jobs. Full-grown adults are more knowledgeable that youngsters or adolescents at creating logical resolutions and at correlating reason and generalization to actions, feelings, common concerns, and special affiliations. As they appreciate these relationships, their thought becomes more global, more concerned with broad moral and practical issues. The achievement of these new kinds of thinking reflects a stage of cognitive development that goes beyond Piaget’s formal operational period. In this stage, people’s thinking becomes dialectical, which means they understand that knowledge is relative, not absolute such that what is seen as wise today may have been thought foolish in times past. They see life’s contradictions as an inevitable part of reality, and they tend to weigh different solutions to problems rather than just accepting the first one that spring to mind.

In most environments it is customary for the older generation to aspire to transmit values and accepted norms to the next generation. Adults take pride in the responsibility they feel to educate young people. This effort facilitates maturity and helps develop youth into successful members of the already established society. As young people mature, they become more independent thinkers and begin to evaluate the society in which they inhabit. This inspection can produce some angst in young people and concern from adults. It is in these formative moments and years that young people search for truth - not one that they inherit, but rather one they can call their own. As a consequence of this purposeful, natural, and necessary reflection, individuals

Experiencing life as an adult opens many doors; you are given the right to do many things that you aren’t able to do as a child.

Children and young adults may look up to their elders in the respect that they've been here longer meaning they know more or have a better idea of how things work than us. Children are able to see things adults can't more often than not. In Fahrenheit 451 Clarisse was able to bring in wonder and change Montages thinking, although she only visited him a few times. In the book Pay it Forward a young boy named Trevor was able to open his mothers and his teacher Rubens eyes to different views on people and the world. That's why I think it's very important that children don't lose their childhood.

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.” -C.S. Lewis. We all have had experiences that bring about growth and maturity; the clear line that separates us from childhood to adulthood. The shift from childhood to adulthood happened for me when I started having my own opinions and my own outlook on life. You can always be traced back into your life, in the events that shaped your perspective of the world.

Perhaps, adults should adopt a childlike mentality to life and view life with its’ hardships as an adventure. Emerson discusses this idea as well is his essay, “Nature.” “The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirt of infancy even into the era of manhood” (Emerson 183). This lover of nature, has reclaimed that childhood innocence. This thought brings up some valid questions. If one is to have a childlike view on life, are they choosing to

The adult world is a cold and terrifying place. There are robberies, shootings, murders, suicides, and much more. If you were to be a small child, perhaps age 5, and you were to look in at this world, you would never know how bad it actually was, just from a single glance. Children have a small slice of ignorant bliss, which helps to keep them away from the harsh of reality. It isn’t until later, when they encounter something that opens their eyes and shows them, that they truly start to understand the world we live it. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird shows the many differences between the simplicity of being a kid and the tough decisions and problems that adults must face every day.