Taking this class has prompted me to think about my own coming of age a lot. The various novels we've read so far have given me a lot of new perspectives on what coming of age really is.
Independence.
Freedom.
Success.
These seem like the main points of coming of age, but they really only scratch the surface. There's so much more to coming of age than just moving out of your parent's house, going to college, getting a job.
It's a mindset.
Even if you're living independently, not living with your parents, you can still be fundamentally childlike. To come of age, you have to be able to think critically and make good decisions. You have to think about the long-term and realize the consequences your actions will have a month, a year, 5 years down the road. Thinking just about the present, the next few days, is more how a child thinks.
For children, there's always that big, scary, sometimes exciting "future" in the distance. Growing up, leaving your parents, getting a job, perhaps going to college or getting married. But the thing about that future, is it's in the future! Kids don't think about how their actions in the present will affect the way the future plays out. They don't plan their actions and make decisions based on what is good for the future. They just want to have fun!
A lot of college students are that way, too. Just because they're not living at home anymore doesn't mean they're adults. They may not have necessarily come of age yet. Coming of age can't just happen at a certain milestone age or life event. It has to happen when the mind matures, and that happens at a different time for each person.
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