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7.3 Intrinsic Motivation
I clearly remember my intrinsic motivation that was ignited by my sixth grade teacher, Ms. Tyser. I wanted to improve my English skills and asked her how to become better with it. She said read books. She explained that reading is important part of life such as reading the current news. From there, I started immersing in books, and my motivation paid off very well. The skills I have right now is like ten times better than back then. My experience does match the text which is to achieve my goal. -
7.2 Transition to Middle School
Grew up in South Carolina School for the Deaf, I didn't feel the impact of transition from elementary to middle school, because I grew up with almost same students and knew all teachers at the campus. But I did feel the change when I withdrew from SCSDB due to lack of education. I went to the mainstream in my 8th grade, and the transition hugely impacted on me. Felt so powerless and fragile. My self esteem didn't improved well at that school, because I was perceived as disabled instead of Greg. -
2.1 Late Maturer
My experience on facing my puberty late does correlate with the text. For example, I experienced a negative body image, but I grew to like my body image after entering my thirties. Another example, during my puberty change, I didn't pay close attention to my body but focused on my future life instead. I think my experience would be different during my maturation period if I had a better education. I feel that having a great education would accelerate my changes/growth with better awareness. -
1.1 Entering Adolescence
Early Fall 1992, I believed and felt that I became an adolescent around 14 years old, because I became serious with getting educated better. I quitted the deaf school in South Carolina, because I felt that I want to experience better education and went to mainstream school as well. I think independence was important to me. As I went through that, I had experienced many conflicts throughout my adolescence years. And I also felt more responsibility for my future as well. The photo of me was at 14. -
3.1 Imaginary Audience
Ever since 'The Bodyguard' (Whitney Houston) album came out (November 1992), I always thought that people especially typical guys who've seen and heard me listening to this album would secretly think that I am like girl and such as that. This is a great example, because it's all in my head that the definition of imaginary audience applies well. My formal thought contributed to this, because in my time, this country's society had low opinion on LGBTQ and was struggling with my gay identity. -
6.1 Parent-Adolescent Conflict
The conflict began when my mother first date the guy a month after her divorce in March 1993. That aggravated my puberty change. She forced me to wear nice clothes and to behave properly around her boyfriend. She always told me that I looked like my father and wished that I didn't exist. That conflict had me realizing for the first time that I never had a real mother-son relationship. This does match the text about the most stressful time during the puberty especially between mothers and sons. -
3.2 Real Versus Ideal, True Versus False Selves
When I was five years of age, I knew I was different. So when I became 14 years of age, my true self was becoming so strong and decided to suppress it. I chose that, because I wanted to be liked. Not only that, I felt that the society wouldn't understand who and what I was. Throughout the school years, I never had close friends and never lived as true self to anyone. In the text, receiving support from parents would boost the "authenticity of the self" (Santrock, 2016, p. 132). Mine never did. -
7.1 Transition to High School
Even though I became freshmen in 1992, I felt the transition didn't impact me, because I was in the special education program at the mainstream. But when I entered MSSD as sophomore, it impacted me. I felt for the first time the sense of independent, more responsibility for self, and able to express my own thought and feeling. So the sense of transitioning to high school began at MSSD. The text correlated to what I experienced which was that I felt awkward and small for the first year at MSSD. -
2.2 Niche Picking
When I was 15 years old, I've always loved being involved with arts-related. The niches that I was being drawn to were drama club, art class, dancing, and signing songs. I found people that had the same interests as mine at MSSD, and I hung out with them often. I didn't look for people that either looked like me or attractive but their interests. This active genotype-environment correlations helped me understanding better why I felt comfortable with arts-related at my old school. -
3.3 Self-Consciousness
I entered Model Secondary School for the Deaf the first year as a sophomore. I was very self conscious with my deafness. I felt that I wasn't "pure" deaf, because I came from the hearing family. What helped me with that was making friends at that school and they helped me understanding the importance of deaf community and such. Especially that they helped me understanding my deafness as well. I think friends are the best, because they help shaping my awareness and knowledge. -
6.2 Intimacy/Affection
I remembered spending one Saturday with Hilda, one of my close high school friends, and I had a nice affection time with her. We talked deeply about life and experiences over dinner then watched the movie. It was very loving and warming moments with her. The second time around, I snuck out with her to escort her to the airport then back on high school campus. That was the another time I remembered. We were more like brother and sister throughout our high school years. My memories got me smiling. -
6.3 Ego Support
I was fortunate to have friends that kept my ego in check, because my ego tended to cause low self-esteem in me when comparing myself to other deaf students on trying to be "deaf". I literally took insults such as being called "hearing" (signing "hearing" on mind) and felt hurt, because I didn't want to be perceived that way. Friends helped me to know that being me is enough and don't let them get to my ego as well. I love having friends like that to help me having a better perspective in life. -
4.1 Gendered-typed behavior
I remembered all my adolescence years, a lot of deaf boys I've encountered with always, ALWAYS loved either storytelling or joking. Especially with their facial expressions and signing dramatically. One of the most memorable memories I have. I don't know if that's the deaf culture, but the text applies so well on these boys regarding report talk. I can't recall seeing girls doing that during my years of adolescence. -
8.1 Rites of Passage
Even though I did not have a real rite of passage ceremony, but I have to say my high school graduation in June 1996 was my 'rites of passage'. I felt that my graduation was my ceremony of transition to my adulthood, or at least entering to the real world. It's correlated to what the text discusses, which is that high school ceremony is the universal 'rites of passage' (Santrock, 2016). My becoming adult was not perfect, but I felt that my ceremony began my first step to the adulthood. -
4.2: Non-gender typed behavior
My sister in her teenager years was very "things oriented" (Santrock, 2016), and she was never into hanging out with people especially with girls. She loved playing sports, watched football games with less or no talking. Also, that she loved working with her father on cars and getting her hands dirty. And that she didn't like sharing her feelings with others as well. So she wasn't one of those typical girls. -
1.2 Emerging Adulthood
Being around 24 years old on March 2001 was my biggest 'emerging adulthood', because I was confused, uncertainty of what career I want to aim for, and very instability in my education. I left Cal State Univ., Northridge for those very reasons, and I didn't want to pile up my school bills because of them as well. I felt that it had a lot to do with my identity and sexuality, because I was confused and distracted by those two issues. So I left that school to find myself for long time.
