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7.1 Transition to Middle school
This transition was much better than the transition to high school. This is when I made all new friends. These are the friends I still have today. Middle school is the first year that all the elementary schools combine and we can meet so many new people.This is also the first year that we can take elective courses such as technology, wood shop, languages, etc. This really allowed me to test out what and see what I'm truly interested in and might want to continue in high school. -
2.1 Typical Maturer
I believe this is the day that I hit puberty because it is when I got my first period. I consider myself a typical maturer because all my closest friends got their period the same year, my two best friends actually got theirs the same exact day as me. Because of this we all hit our growth spurts at the same time and experienced the same mood swings and emotional roller coasters. This made it easier because I had people to talk about it with when it was too uncomfortable to discuss with adults. -
1.1 Entering Adolescence
I believe this was the day I became an adolescent because this is the day I turned thirteen. This is when I believe you are physically considered an adolescent, but mentally I have no idea. I personally feel that I matured a lot faster than my peers and might have acted as if I was an adolescent earlier than this. But when it comes to the biological side, I was on time as everyone else for the different changes as mentioned in the text, such as everything that comes with puberty. -
7.3 Intrinsic Motivation
Starting in freshman year of high school, I became a tutor for children whose parents didn't speak English. Everyday after school I would meet many kids from grades 3-5. These children don't have the help they need at home with their parents being unable to understand or communicate well the lessons. Of course this looked good on my resume, but the look on their faces after they finally understood the lesson was much more rewarding. I tried to incorporate hands on activities for their lessons. -
2.2 Niche-picking
During my adolescence I was very interested in culture. In my home environment I had a lot of exposure to different cultures since my mother is Chilean and Spanish and my father is Italian, German, Dutch, and Czechoslovakian. This type of environment made me want to learn about more and more cultures. This encouraged me to take American Sign Language classes in high school. This was my the date of my first day of high school where my life changed once I witnessed and fell in love with ASL. -
3.1 Personal Fable
This was my first day of eighth grade, when I entered my "no one understands me," days. After reading the text I definitely took a stroll down memory lane. Much of what it said was relatable. In eighth grade was when I had my first break up and I considered it the end of the world. I was constantly upset and moping around for two weeks after. My mom would try and see what was wrong, but I would just slam the door in her face and fight with her to leave me alone during these, "difficult times." -
3.2 Social Comparison
This was the year in my adolescence when Facebook became very popular. Growing up in the age of technology has made these aspects a lot more difficult to ignore. Constantly seeing what everyone is doing, wearing, saying puts us in an awful spot for social comparison. It makes it a lot easier to compare our lives to others and feel upset if we don't believe that ours is equally as important or interesting. -
3.3 Self-Consciousness
Facebook also played a big role in this aspect of self-consciousness. Every person posts profile pictures and other photos of themselves and most of the time they are not natural. I am not talking about make-up, I'm talking about photoshop and editing. These new capabilities gave people the opportunity to alter their appearance to look like what they think is, "perfect." This then causes other people viewing these to be self-conscious because that look is fake and unrealistic. -
4.2 Non-gender typed behavior
This was when I became friends with this boy named James. Me and James met through mutual friends and hit it off right away. He was my first male best friend. I trusted him with everything. I was never the person to open up easily to people, but I always thought that if I had a close male best friend I could trust easier because males don't tend to gossip. I realized it's not always true because he spread one of my secrets around school. There is no gender more trustworthy, just people who are. -
8.1 Rite of Passage
In the United States, we have very different rites of passage compared to other countries around the world. One example of one we have here during our adolescence would be Sweet 16s. A sweet 16 is a party where a girl leaves childhood and enters adolescence or adulthood lifestyles. It is a huge celebration almost the same level as a wedding. It is viewed as the entrance into independence and maturity. It was the most fun night I have ever had in my life, definitely something I will never forget. -
4.1 Gender-typed Behavior
I remember in high school many people would do this thing we called a promposal. This is a completely over the top gesture for a guy to ask a girl to prom. While reading about gender-typed behaviors, this is one specific one that came to mind. It has been seen as typical since forever that guys are the ones to ask girls out or to prom, or for their hand in marriage. This was the date that my close friend Alex made a poster of all pictures of us that spelled out prom. -
6.1 Parent Adolescent Conflict
I had wanted to go out for my birthday to a club with a group of my friends. My mom didn't like the idea because at this age I stopped being friends with a lot of the people in middle school and made a new group of friends. This new group was majority male. My mom's famous line in all of our fights was, "ratio!" She always wanted to make sure the amount of boys and girls was the same. She trusted me, but not other people judging and making up rumors. It caused a lot of fights between us. -
1.2 Emerging Adulthood
I picked this date because this is when I turned eighteen.This is the age that a majority of people consider becoming an adult. The textbook just supports my claim because of how it explains, "The age of possibilities." Eighteen is the age when you can go away to college or get a real job and start exploring all your interests and use what you have been learning out in the real world. This age is when you start having more freedom and responsibilities. -
7.2 Transition to College
This was definitely the most extreme transition I have ever experienced so far in my life. Going from living in the hearing world all my life to living in the Deaf world. Transitioning to college is hard enough being away from everyone you know and having to meet and live with all new people. I grew up very spoiled, so coming here and having to do everything on my own was very difficult at first. I feel like this experience has matured me faster than anything else could.