Grow Rich

“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire other,” says Virginia Woolf, an English writer. Growing up is preordained. Everyone grows up. When do we grow up? Perhaps, after we graduate school, maybe after our first love, or maybe after our marriage or maybe after the birth of our first kid. It primarily depends on how one looks at it, but irrespective of what we consider the right time or the right situation to be “grown-ups”, we cannot help but admit that it is that moment in time where innocence vanishes. As children, we dream of growing up, getting a job, getting married, living happily but on the contrary it is quite different, we find that reality is completely opposite. More often than we wish, we were still children,

The second occurs as teenagers come closer to the prison that is adulthood. While already filled with angst and hormones, they try to fight their future to no avail. This frustration is what warrants their cry for help. The author also emphasizes the inevitability of the future by stressing that “[they] were born” into the lives they’re living(1,22). While they may fight to make their own choices, these young adults have little to no say in what they will become later in life.

Many people do not have the chance to live out their dream; a sundry amount have to settle for more attainable goals. Future presidents became dentists and rock stars turn into nurses. There is a limited population who can walk up every morning completely satisfied with their life path; McTeague is one of the lucky few. He is a man who took the remnants of his deceased mother’s wealth and pursued his dream. Some might fantasize of bigger homes or fancier cars, but McTeague dreamed of a little dental parlor. His dream of starting up a business can seem rather small, but McTeague is content with his one shop. The narrator however disapproves of McTeague’s ambitions and belittles the protagonist through choice of structure and condescending

Many people want to grow up quickly, they wish to be on their own as soon as possible, but the process of growing up can be as challenging as climbing Mount Everest. In A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester, a teenage boys struggling with self-doubt, is a prime example of this. Year after year, people are met with inner turmoil on who they are and what they stand for, moreover, the transition between adolescent to adulthood only increases complications with identity.

This essay will demonstrate my understanding of developments which occur at each stage of an individual's life cycle. I will relate these developments to two relevant psychological theories and discuss how an individual's needs must be met to enable them to develop.

As people reach the age of adulthood, their life begins to drastically change, whether that change be positive or negative. Two poems, To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age by Samuel Johnson and When I Was One-and-Twenty by A.E. Housman, present the positive and negative changes that occur during the transition into a young man’s adulthood. In comparison to each other, both of the works have conflicting tones, points of view, audiences, diction, and overall themes. The former poem is written for celebration, and the latter is written for a more sad realization.

As long as they had something to sell and people wanted it, they could make more money than those in the gold mines. To the disadvantage of those in California without a steady income, businessmen and shop owners could overprice all of their goods, which allowed them to become rich almost instantly. This drew many in the hopes that the east. Lyman Bradley even said “‘If you could get a job done quick enough to suit, you could have almost any price your conscience allowed you to ask.’” when writing in his journal about businesses in California.

Becoming wealthy swiftly might be working wonders for some Americans, but for the rest of them, the broadening gap between the rich and the poor is making them lose faith in the “American Dream”; moreover, this gap forces the middle-class Americans to focus only on their careers which allow family values to lose its importance.

The book “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok illustrates the relationship between two teenage boys, Danny and Reuven, as they grow into adulthood and struggle to find a balance between conflicting parental expectations and their own desires. A prominent theme presented throughout this novel is that although one’s environment and experiences affects one’s distinct and personal identity, the individual is ultimately (ultimately, it is the individual who (is)) the one who decides his or her own identity. Chaim Potok uses metaphors and imagery to demonstrate the theme by relating them to the protagonists’, Danny and Reuven’s, growth and their eventual decision to study their own respective fields.

As Americans, many of us believe in this principle of the American Dream. The American Dream, in its simplicity, is the notion that anything, especially career wise, is achievable. We usually associate this concept with obtaining material things, such as cars or a fancy house. But, even if you achieve your American Dream, complete with a car and fancy house, does that really mean you achieved happiness? The poem “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a testament to this idea that although someone may have everything there is to want, that does not really mean they have true happiness.

Growing up, people realize that around the time of reaching a mature state, education has affected their personal family life in one way or the other. With that being said, in his essay, “The Achievement of Desire”, Richard Rodriguez headed towards a path where he was unconsciously distancing himself from his family and becoming much more independent than he had expected. Rodriguez gives the reader a sentimental idea of the two contrary lives he had growing up, the life he had as a child, and the life he has as an educated man. He continued believing in his aspiration of how benefits of education can remarkably outweigh the past struggles of both his family and himself. Like Rodriguez, I also, in the past, found some form of solitude

I think that the poet is trying to tell us to live life to the fullest

Who am I? What is my place in the world? What do I want to do with my life? These are some of the most fundamental if not somewhat cliche questions that we as humans ask ourselves. From the moment of birth, we begin on our long journey toward not only discovering the world around us but also discovering ourselves. Although the journey of self-discovery is lifelong, most developmentalists agree that it is during the adolescent years that we seriously begin to consider the question of who am I? One of the most famous people to describe

Finally, The last poem that this essay will talk about is “From the second that you’re in this world”. This poem shows that no matter what society thinks is best for you, you should follow your own dreams and not let others decide for you. In the poem, it states “They’ll tell you you should fear this land, That there’s no good there at all” and “Follow your heart at any cost, For you’ll never truly find yourself, if you’re too scared to get lost”. These two quotes from the poem tell a lot. Others will say that your choice is a bad idea to do, or that you shouldn’t go down that path because it doesn’t seem like you, going on and on about why you shouldn’t do so. But, if you listen to them and not follow your dreams, will you ever be able to discover who you are? Will you ever find out your full potential? You listened to the others and made them scare you away from your own dream. On the other hand, if you follow your dreams and ignore all the people that say you’re choosing the wrong path, you will be able to find out who you really are inside and reach your full potential. Be proud that you didn’t listen to the

Anyone who is familiar with our generation knows that our generation is extremely different from our parents’ generation. Thus, creates a gap between the two generations, and has been acknowledged by many sociologists. Aside from today’s young people inability to accomplish the millstones of becoming an adult, there is lot more differences between this generation and the older generation. Therefore, in this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting both generations. From how their career expectations are different, what was their definition of happiness, and how their parents played a role on making their dream or expectation turn into reality?