Growing up can be easy for some, but difficult for others. This hit me this year when I now have to take my brother to school. My brother has just entered middle school, he was the only one from his class to attend this school. He would talk to me and tell me how he was scared of not making friends and falling behind with his grades. I always talked to him about my experience and said it wasn’t bad as long as you pay attention to what you have to do and try your best.
He took this advice, but somehow he didn’t feel the same way I did. I knew something was wrong because as days passed he was sad, he would cry, I asked him what was going on and he said everything was fine. I knew something was wrong so I told him to be honest with me, because I am there to help him. He said that he missed my mom, and was afraid of the older kids. I understood him with being scared of the kids because he came from being the oldest in his whole school, to one of the youngest in his new school. He was also used to having my mom wake him up, and take him to school, but because my mom is now working she can only see him afterschool. I didn’t understand why he missed her if these whole years he’s been going to school fine without any worries.
When talking to my grandma one day, she mentioned the fact that when I was little my mom always worked so I didn’t get to see her as much, and I grew closer to my grandma. However for my brother it was different, he was raised by mom, and then having to adapt to not seeing her in the mornings can cause a feeling of loneliness. This is when it became clear to me that growing up is different for everyone even if you have been together your whole lives.
As I read this, I was able to see similarities that I pointed out between this and my little brother as well. When my family moved, he was also quite left out and felt different in his new school, a new environment. The theme of growing up in your story is strong as it mentions the development of your own little brother and how you took the time to understand him. Your ending was quite a nice realization to me as well because I have several relative members, my cousins, that have different uncles and their progress in growing up was different from their siblings. Growing up is indeed different for every individual and my main takeaway from this was taking the time and patience to understand that.
I agree, there are many different ways that people experience growing up. While I did not find anything you said similar to my experience of growing up, I can say that this is the most common way people grow up. For me, I was always walking with my mom and or dad. But when I hit 6th grade I started to walk to school by myself. I also said to my parents that I would like to walk alone. I said this to experience what it was like to be on my own, a little taste of what I would eventually come into. Now, I share time with my family when I’m not outside.
I totally agree with you. I was forced to grow up when I first came to the United States. However, my two younger siblings had different experiences. They took everything slowly. Not me. I had to process everything fast and clear due to being the oldest and the one my mother has always relied on. Truly, growing up is different for everyone.
I completely agree. Everyone experiences things differently and handles things at different levels. This reminded me about frame of reference which we learned about in communications. Everyone sees things from a different point of view so they will react to it differently. It is also very difficult to adjust from something you are familiar with to a whole new setting. Although it is difficult, it will get easier. We are all proof that the transition from school to school gets easier.