The 3 Dragons You Face on the Journey

Being a Teenager is a Heroic Journey – Just Like in the Myths

You leave the known world of childhood, enter the world of being a teenager with all its unknowns and eventually create your world as a young adult.  You have to (1) leave the ways of childhood behind, (2) discover and master the ways of a young adult, and (3) deal with many years of being in-between those two worlds – “inbetweenity.”

Becoming the Author of Your Life

At the heart of the heroic journey is being the author of a life.  That is what happens in the teen years.  You leave the dependence of childhood behind and find your way to the independence of young adulthood.  You develop the capability of being the author of your life.

The Three Dragons You Face

In the classic myths heroes often faced dragons and you have three dragons to face.  You need to form an identity as a young adult.  You need to develop new or more mature relationships with (1) parents and other adults, (2) peers, (3) romantic partners and (4) sexual partners.  And you need to build a surprising number of competencies that are required for success as a young adult.

This part of the website looks at all three of these core challenges.  It is designed to help you focus your attention and energy.  It is also designed to help understand the nature of the challenges so that you can make sense out of your experience and make good choices about how to act to be successful.

What to Expect and What to Do

The other two central parts of the site lay out what to expect on the journey in a lot of detail and provide six strategies that you can adapt to help manage your journey.

Be Curious

This is a 10-year journey and these three core challenges are complex.  The best way to approach this site is to simply be curious and follow your interest.

There is a Table of Contents in the Section for Each Core Challenge