Growing Old
It seems that since the beginning of history we have seen explorers and kings search every corner of the world for the fabled Fountain of Youth in hopes that they will stay forever young. All of them failed. Everyone dreads growing older. We shrink from the responsibilities that age brings us in a futile attempt to return to the care free days of our youth. “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins is a poem focused on the loss of childhood innocence when someone feels that they are being forced to grow up. At a certain point in life, everyone has one or more defining moments that are a cause for growth in their lives and these moments are necessary to development. I know my first defining moment all too well. I grew up in Wisconsin, born in Milwaukee, but spending my 2nd through 5th grade years in a small town forty five minutes South of Milwaukee called Burlington.This is where I began to put down my roots. I made friends in school as well as in my neighborhood. We were thick as thieves, partners in mischief. …show more content…
I would lose all my friends and be thrown into a new school, into a class that was double the size of my entire school in Wisconsin. At eleven years old these events were unimaginably terrifying. Collins highlights this feeling in “On Turning Ten”. A young child feels that as they turn ten, they are forced to grow up. Forced to leave behind the childhood games and fantasies they relied on in years past. I also felt like I was forced to grow up. I was an eleven year old girl, taking care of my nine year old brother during the summer while my parents worked. We could no longer go to our grandmother’s house as we did in Wisconsin. I could no longer “make myself invisible” or indulge in the “beautiful complexity introduced by two” (Collins). However, as terrified and angry as I was that summer, I look back on it fondly, knowing that it helped shape me into the better person I am
It seems that since the beginning of history we have seen explorers and kings search every corner of the world for the fabled Fountain of Youth in hopes that they will stay forever young. All of them failed. Everyone dreads growing older. We shrink from the responsibilities that age brings us in a futile attempt to return to the care free days of our youth. “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins is a poem focused on the loss of childhood innocence when someone feels that they are being forced to grow up. At a certain point in life, everyone has one or more defining moments that are a cause for growth in their lives and these moments are necessary to development. I know my first defining moment all too well. I grew up in Wisconsin, born in Milwaukee, but spending my 2nd through 5th grade years in a small town forty five minutes South of Milwaukee called Burlington.This is where I began to put down my roots. I made friends in school as well as in my neighborhood. We were thick as thieves, partners in mischief. …show more content…
I would lose all my friends and be thrown into a new school, into a class that was double the size of my entire school in Wisconsin. At eleven years old these events were unimaginably terrifying. Collins highlights this feeling in “On Turning Ten”. A young child feels that as they turn ten, they are forced to grow up. Forced to leave behind the childhood games and fantasies they relied on in years past. I also felt like I was forced to grow up. I was an eleven year old girl, taking care of my nine year old brother during the summer while my parents worked. We could no longer go to our grandmother’s house as we did in Wisconsin. I could no longer “make myself invisible” or indulge in the “beautiful complexity introduced by two” (Collins). However, as terrified and angry as I was that summer, I look back on it fondly, knowing that it helped shape me into the better person I am