From Child to Young Adult

It’s a Journey

Forming an identity is one of the core challenges for all teenagers, so everyone is facing this challenge.  It takes time to develop an identity as a young man or young woman.  You can, however, discover a surprising number of elements that form an identity early in the teen years.

The heroic journey involves letting go of old ways, discovering and mastering new ways, and dealing with the long period in-between (“inbetweenity”).  As a teenager, you must let go of your childhood identity, develop an identity as a young adult and deal with the “inbetweenity” that will last for years as your new identity develops.

You Have Inner Voices & Outer Voices – Who do You Listen to?

The most important perspective is your own perspective of who you are – how you see yourself.  There will, however, always be a social perspective – how others see you.  Those two perspectives will always be at play together, but your self-perspective is the critical one – and the one you are most responsible for.

Your own inner voices will also be at play – the positive self-talk and the negative self-talk.  “I can do this vs. I’ll never do this” or “People won’t really like me vs. I am pretty likeable.”  There are lots of internal voices and they chatter a lot.

It’s an Identity Puzzle – And Everyone’s is Different

Your identity will have lots of pieces and they need to fit together.  Everyone’s puzzle is different and each one requires a process of first exploring various aspects of your identity and then committing to those that fit you.