In The Old Man and the Sea, it became clear that the concept of “coming of age” does not really have anything to do with age. For me, coming of age is about you believing that you have reached a certain level of maturity. Everyone’s perception of coming of age is unique to them, so coming of age can be different for different people. Overall, coming of age is about being able to believe that you deserve respect from yourself and others by reaching a certain level of maturity.
A person’s ideal for coming of age will differ based on their environment. My grandfather and the older generations of my family are Jewish, so a big part of coming of age for them was their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. These occur when a Jewish child turns thirteen. The child …show more content…
It’s an incredible experience. We had worked on the logistics for months, doing training hikes, planning flights, and reserving campsites, but that first view really made everything that went into the trip worth it. Things like that really can’t be captured in a picture. No matter how stunning a photograph of the Grand Canyon is, it’s nothing compared to standing on the edge of a hundred foot drop and just taking in the hugeness of one of the most famous landmarks in the world. Even my little eleven-year-old brain could understand the immensity of what I was witnessing, and that whole experience was very …show more content…
But I did it, and that really goes to show that being able to endure trying experiences and come out of them better is an important part of coming of age. For my grandfather, it was a Bar Mitzvah that made him an adult, for my father, years of labor. But for me, it was a half-a-mile-long jog up the Grand Canyon, and I think that that proves how important little parts of your life are to coming of age, like my dad said. Overall, coming of age is a process, and when it is over, you have earned respect from none other than yourself. Nobody can tell you how to come of age - you have to figure it out for yourself. Society will either respect you or they won’t, but coming of age is based on personal interpretation, so it is only you that can say when or how you can come of
A person’s ideal for coming of age will differ based on their environment. My grandfather and the older generations of my family are Jewish, so a big part of coming of age for them was their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. These occur when a Jewish child turns thirteen. The child …show more content…
It’s an incredible experience. We had worked on the logistics for months, doing training hikes, planning flights, and reserving campsites, but that first view really made everything that went into the trip worth it. Things like that really can’t be captured in a picture. No matter how stunning a photograph of the Grand Canyon is, it’s nothing compared to standing on the edge of a hundred foot drop and just taking in the hugeness of one of the most famous landmarks in the world. Even my little eleven-year-old brain could understand the immensity of what I was witnessing, and that whole experience was very …show more content…
But I did it, and that really goes to show that being able to endure trying experiences and come out of them better is an important part of coming of age. For my grandfather, it was a Bar Mitzvah that made him an adult, for my father, years of labor. But for me, it was a half-a-mile-long jog up the Grand Canyon, and I think that that proves how important little parts of your life are to coming of age, like my dad said. Overall, coming of age is a process, and when it is over, you have earned respect from none other than yourself. Nobody can tell you how to come of age - you have to figure it out for yourself. Society will either respect you or they won’t, but coming of age is based on personal interpretation, so it is only you that can say when or how you can come of