Growing up has been a topic discussed by people over and over, which can be defined as the maturity and change in adolescence. Growing up can be simply a physical aspect of aging. However, to more people, it necessarily involves deeper questions and topics, especially mentally. The challenge and difficulties in growth is unavoidable. Throughout three short stories that are relevant to this topic—— The Challenge, President Cleveland WHERE ARE YOU, and Too Soon a Woman, each of the articles remarked a life period of teenagers, and discussed the growth from different perspectives, throughout the changes of characters. In this essay, we will be talking about what growing up can be.
The maturity in one can be the ability to overcome and solve problems that exist in life. Kids and teenagers are mainly protected by adults in their childhood. But in fact, highlight moments in real life are only a small amount of time, while the majority are mediocrity and difficulties. The story in Too Soon a Woman mirrored it. While Marie joined the family with three children on a trip in the forest of the mountain, they lacked resources and the only adult left them. In this case, although Marie is facing such a dangerous situation, she still found mushrooms to cook and stayed away from starving. She saved the kid’s lives and was accepted by the family, as a person who can deal with challenges during camping, in nature. Collectively, growing up is about stepping out of your comfort zone, having strong enough capacity to face different challenges in changing situations.
Meanwhile, growing up is having respect and care for people around you, and viewing things from a higher and more mature perspective. We are in touch and communicate to different communities and people every single day. It’s not enough to always only care and center one’s self. To people who are close to us, have connections with us, showing understanding and being generous can be necessary. In President Cleveland, WHERE ARE YOU, the main character Jerry was selfish at first—— He didn’t care about anything except the cards that were a trend for the teenage boys. But after weeks, he changed and became generous—— He sold the most important president card therefore he could give the 5 dollars to his brother Alma, who wanted to buy decorations for a girl he admired. Jerry became more mature, he cared more about the relationship between him and his family compared to small cards. Too Soon A Woman also represent it—— Marie’s care to three kids, although they weren’t family yet. At the same time, in The Challenge, José changed his perspective on women. At the beginning of the story, he believes girls are “supposed” to lose. But after Estela beat him at the sports game, he realized females can have strong strength in different areas. José Began to respect girls, in such a way, he grew up.
Being mature could be able to accept the difference between imagination and reality. People all tend to imagine the idealized picture of our life, but things may not always go in the way everyone wants. We could be limited by conditions around us, therefore not able to achieve the goals we wanted to. Jerry in President Cleveland, WHERE ARE YOU desire for buying plenty of cards, while getting a birthday present for his father. However, their family’s financial condition didn’t allow it. At the prelude of the story, he wouldn’t do anything but blaming; but at the end, he sacrificed his cards to buy a gift for his brother Alma, which is a behavior of growing up. The Challenge also showed how José imagined the girl he admired would act when he tried to get her attention, which made a big contrast with the result, but it also taught him a lesson about gender rights.
To Sum up, growing up can be explained in different ways from different stories, different points of view. In the three short stories, The Challenge, President Cleveland WHERE ARE YOU, and Too Soon a Woman it can be seen as the growth of capacity and mentality—— overcoming difficulties, respect & mature thinking, and the ability in acceptance. Growing should be known as the action of learning forward, an understanding of happiness and future.
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