Who am I?

     I decided this week to do my Reflection Blog on how adolescents search for their identity. I found this section of reading to be really interesting and full of fun tid-bits of information. It was fun for me to read this and look back at how I developed into he person I am today, and also look into my sons future as an adolescent and kind of guess at how he would be growing up.

     There are 4 phases that teens are said to go through in order to search for their identities; these do not necessarily happen in a sequential order:

• Diffusion: He/She is overwhelmed by having to find an identity and doesn't accomplish the "burden".
• Foreclosure: He/She has an identity that is determined by adults and not by them exploring it personally.
• Moratorium: He/She is analyzing different identities but has not found one that they find to be sufficient.
• Achievement: He/She has investigated alternative identities and has chosen one he/she finds acceptable.

(Most young teens are in either a state of Diffusion or Foreclosure)

    
     I found this section to be interesting because I like that young adults go through a "trial and error" kind of mentality to find what best works for them. In the book it states that most of the identity testing is done through exploration into career paths. It makes sense if you think about it, mainly because most children are envisioning what they will be like when they get older; Rock star, doctor, professional football player, or even a stay-at-home mom. I also found the "Foreclosure" phase to be an interesting one to think about. Pressure by adults on what they want their teens to be like as they grow older is something that I don't honestly believe in. It's really all about letting you child grow and learn on their own; exploring new concepts is a pretty major part in becoming an adult and to strip them of that and impel them to what you want is something I don't see working out so well in the long run.

     I can relate to this section of reading because I want my child to be able to grow up to be the man he wants to be. Of course, I want to help him with his "personality exploration" but only when he feels he needs to ask for advice on the subject. I think I will encounter a few times when I will want to persuade him to be what I would like, but I kind of just have to keep that in check and allow him to be what he wants... as long as it isn't some sort of criminal :) Anyways, when I was growing up my parents were pretty big "pushers" with my siblings and I. They definitely wanted us to take the college route and grow to be lawyers, doctors, or police officers. The good thing about them though, is that they only pushed so far, which I find to be beneficial; a little pushing, but nothing extreme.

     Anyways, I really liked this chapter to be able to relate my growing-up experiences and to look forward to watching my son hit these milestones :)

Thanks for reading!

-Keisha