The journey of adolescence to adulthood is full of contradiction. It is definitely the most confusing period of life, for both adolescents and adults. As a young person enters adolescence, they will be experiencing both hormonal and neurological changes. Their bodies and minds are changing chemically, in many ways permanently. This is why the journey from adolescence into adulthood is so crucial. It is the only time that this will happen, the changes had during adolescence will be with most of us, all our lives.

What is adolescence?

Adolescence is a time of growth and innocence. Each individual adolescent has their own needs to be addressed. As an adult, it is possible to mold the adolescent as an adult figure in their life. Different kids will respond to certain actions differently, boys and girls, or other groupings. Adolescence begins shaping the world our the young. As the young identity forms, so does comradely, cliques and other social dynamics. As the adolescent loses their childhood innocence, so do they gain insights and adult wisdom. For example, one thing that teenagers often do is writing in their journals. They record their thoughts onto paper and sum up their day or recent events. However, when these teenagers become adults, they may grow out of this habit. Although they won’t keep a diary anymore, writing often will give them practice in expressing their thoughts in a coherent manner. These are the things they will later use to become a successful, mature and capable adult.

What marks adulthood?

As an adolescent grows into maturity, their personality takes form, based on both experiences and what they have learned. At first the adolescent may seem to be out of sync with their peers, but as time moves forward they start maturing. There is no strict timeline for the period known as adolescence. So some adolescents are late bloomers, while others mature early, but most spread it out over a few years. This would be where most adolescents fall, they are happily average in timing with their maturity. This is probably a good thing overall. If they had to choose their timing, it would be hard. Being able to make such decisions, also marks the individuals adulthood.

So it is, that the journey of adolescent can be contradictory, but still formative. It is not always in the way that seems logical to adults, but it is how the adolescent matures into adulthood. This is the goal, that the adolescent is hopefully going to achieve. Even the most rowdy adolescent is just a young person waiting to bloom. This is what those blessed with an adolescent in their life should keep in mind. The journey is made complete as the adolescent reaches adulthood successfully, but no journey is the same.