Chapter Three/Emerging Adulthood

                I think Madelyn’s first sentence in regards to the article written by Arnett (2000) about emerging adulthood captures my sentiments about it perfectly. Ironically, I was having a conversation over drinks with a couple of peers last night in regards to adulthood. We varied in our stages of emerging adulthood as some of us were grad students, some were full time workers, some were part time graduate students/part time workers. Some of us were married, some were dating and some were single. All of these differences I demographics just spoke to the lack of homogeneity amongst the group with only one common trait; the age range. In our conversation many of us differed on our perceived states into adulthood. Some that seemed furthest along referred to themselves as kids while others that would be perceived as lacking perceived themselves as far along and were able to justify why. Combining this conversation with this article allowed for it all to be placed in perspective.

                I also enjoyed the Arnett article because it makes sense in regards to my personal story. I feel like everything I have done has been to strive to and achieve a certain goal. That goal pertains to the areas that the article talked about; love, work and worldviews. I want to be settled down, with a perfect job in a community that shares similar worldviews on family and friendship that my wife, children and I do. As it stands I’ve only achieved one of these and the other two are contingent on finishing this program. For that reason while people from the outside have stated they believe I am entering adulthood, I only feel as I am displaying some competence in moving toward adulthood but that I still have a long ways to go. The article also mentioned the continuation of risk taking. Last week’s conversation got me to thinking that I never really took risks in always attempting to move towards that aforementioned goal but that I have very little time left to take risks and the article made me happy to reassure that others in this age range feel the same way that they have limited time left to take risks.

               

                In regards to the Corey & Corey text (2008) I am a firm believer that my childhood and adolescence have a heavy impact on creating a life script filled with injunctions. I would wager that many of those were positive because my mother was very nurturing but not over abundant in doing so. This lead to me being prosperous as a youth and as I entered adolescence this was quelled by my peers. A mixture of these two still exists and I find myself currently combating into my emerging adulthood which one of these aspects do I want to be the predominate aspect of me as both have presented me with pros and cons. This has been a huge battle for me over the past year or two and has come up in various other courses in the SCCN program thus far. Hearing others affirm that they too are experiencing challenging their own world views and finding it discovered in-depth within the text puts much of my concern at ease.

Corey, G. & Corey, M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a choice: Exploration in personal growth (9th

                   Edition). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole

Arnett, J.J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the

twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469-480.