Response 3 students, each student around 150-200words 

Samantha- Attainment of Adulthood

For myself, I would say that I began viewing myself as an adult when I realized that I could make my own decisions.  I know that may seem like something I should have realized all along, but I did not.  Realizing that I could make my own decisions was terrifying, but also exciting.  This realization led to me going out and doing things for myself; going on trips, getting tattoos, buying a car.  It is exciting to realize that the world recognizes me as an adult.  I am only 23, so this is certainly something I am still figuring out and realizing every single day.  However, I can vividly remember the moment that I realized I could do anything, and that I didn’t have to answer to anyone.  That would certainly be the attainment of adulthood for myself.  As for others in my life, I would say they have similar views.  When talking to my friends we often agree how crazy it is that we can go out and do anything.  We talk about how we could pick up our life and move anywhere; across the country, even across the world.  It seems, however, that we are not the only ones who think this way.  In this week’s reading, I found the “thee markers of adulthood that are the most common across cultures” (Arnett, 15) to be both interesting and relatable. These markers were listed as “accepting responsibility for oneself, making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent, in that order” (Arnett, 15).  Accepting responsibility for yourself shows that you hold yourself accountable for your actions, and that you are in control.  Independent decisions shows that not only are you responsible for yourself, but you can carry out tasks on your own without other’s help or approval.  Finally, becoming financially independent shows that you can take care of yourself on your own, and that you do not need to rely on anyone else.  Arnett goes on to explain that all of these markers share the common theme of individualism.  This very much reminds me of what I feel to be the attainment of adulthood for myself; recognizing myself as an individual.  

Mia- Storm and Stress in Adolescence

I both agree and disagree with the view that adolescence is inevitably a time of storm and stress. Within my last four years of the public-school system, I had a lot to think about. I had to make sure to maintain good grades, and also when it came to senior year and applications I wanted to make sure that I was applying to the right universities and making sure that the major of my choice is really what I wanted to do. This came with a lot of stress, mainly because I had not a single clue as to what I wanted to do with my future. This also came with a storm, as I had a lot of personal issues that went on throughout these four years. To keep it short, my mom unfortunately passed away while I was in high school. This brought a major storm, and I really lacked on my school work. I felt extremely unmotivated and had no energy to do any work – which led to my grades becoming unmaintained. This ties in with that stress. I feel as though everyone goes through some sort of stress or storm within their adolescent years, but it’s not always inevitable which is why I disagree with the statement as well. I had no clue that my mother was going to pass away, and I had no clue how much of an effect it would have on my education. I had no clue that I was going to become stressed about what I wanted to do with my life. Some may have it good, and they know exactly what they want to do from the gecko and just keep on moving, but for others (like myself) we go through things. The way I view stress is something that puts a lot of pressure on yourself, something that you can’t get off your mind and it’s something you’re always worrying about. This is my definition of stress because I always feel a sense of worry when I am stress. The way I view storm is when something big happens in my life and it brings a lot of baggage. So, when my mom passed away, it brought baggage as I was overwhelmed with sadness, grief, anger, confusion, etc. 

Week 2 – Waleh Rafeh

I believe that the globalization of social media has huge negative side effects on adolescence. The media influences people to feel like they have to follow the latest trends and styles to fit in within the society they are in. I believe this causes huge negative side effects on adolescence because these are the stages of them trying to figure themselves out, and love themselves for who they like, how they look, and who they are. But with social media, it makes individuals feel like they have to look a certain way, or like a certain somebody, just to fit in with their classmates, friends, etc. Also, I feel like the media clouds a lot of these teenagers judgements on a lot of things, such as how they should act. For example, within these past couple years Juuling has been something that has been so big within all cultures, especially when it comes to high school students. I believe that people around this age feel like they have to do it, just to look cool. I mean, that is what the media is teaching them, along side a lot of other negative things. All in all, I definitely believe that the globalization of a adolescence has a huge negative impact because of what the media influences these people to do, act, look, etc.