Personal Narrative: Dale Friend

From the ages of 5 to 20, Dale Friend lived with no sisters or brothers outside of a village named Stony Ridge Ohio. Growing up in a farming community where over half of the population being Caucasian German folk, he barely experienced diversity except for the occasional Hispanics that came over to work in the summertime. When Dale graduated out of Eastwood High School at the age of 18, he left for Ohio State University in 1979. When asked of his transition from going to a high school with approximately 450 students from 6 different small-scale villages, to attending a college with over 50,000 students at the time, he replied, “It was fun going from everybody being the same, to so many differences and diversity.” Although Dale had certain …show more content…
It was worth going to college, but I didn’t spend 80,000 dollars like you’d spend. Now if I spent 20-40,000 dollars for college, but didn’t get a degree, I probably wouldn’t think it was worth it.” Before Dale was interviewed, he didn’t have a clue on what a coming-of-age experience meant, hence explained, his view on the subject came out quite unique when compared to others. When asked upon his concept of coming-of-age, he responded, “The interesting thing is they have all of these little names you know: Newborn, infant, toddler, wobblers, preschoolers, elementary age. And they are all based upon age and the usual things you can do at that age. Adulthood is a really big word because adulthood is not only, physically you’re an adult, but also being mentally and emotionally able to support yourself and live on your own.” To Dale, nobody stops coming-of-age, nevertheless he believes that there are critical moments in growing up where someone adapts, or progresses into an adult, college being one of his personal crucial