My Attempt At A Final Blog Post - Nicholas Schionning

 I’m going to be completely honest: I barely understood what I read. In its own context, it seems to talk about how an important part of growing up is both gaining your own, hopefully good, judgement, as well as being able to think for ones own self as well as make good choices. There’s also lots of talking about old age, mainly of how a common sentiment is that it’s better to die young than to grow old, as well as how depending on the society how the elderly are treated are far different. Likewise, they also refer to how we haven’t created a world where you want to grow up. It also talks about how society treats people who are older worse, as if they are now lesser for being old, and people in their “prime” should take their place. It ends on discussing how philosophy seemingly only makes the issues of growing up harder by showing how people have ignored it, answering individual questions, then bringing it all together. WGU (193-234) 

Truthfully, I don’t know what else to say that the book doesn’t. It doesn’t help that the author is far more studied than me, a college freshman who mainly took this class thinking it’d be fairly simple. I do agree with most of what is said, but I think something they don’t bring up that’s important is that most people have a certain assumption about growing up: That is, the loss of things they enjoyed when they were younger.

I believe a common assumption about growing up is that when you do, you can’t enjoy things that are “childish” anymore. That maturity means being stereotypically “adult.” You can’t play with things like LEGO or toys, you replace that with things like crossword puzzles and golf. You can’t enjoy the same shows you’re used to, you need to watch new shows. You need to grow up and focus on your career, and that means forsaking what you used to enjoy. Personally, I think this is a false impression of reality that only makes growing up seem less desirable. 

For me, growing up is becoming more aware of others around you, having a greater understanding of the world, and being able to function on your own in society. Ironically, I believe people who still accept and enjoy what is considered “immature” are more mature than the adults who decry that sort of enjoyment. It’s important that I distinguish this from people that are referred to as “manchildren,” as when people talk about those, they mean people who never truly “grew up” and are still immature. There is a difference between that and enjoying childish things. 

Personally, I still enjoy things like building with LEGO, collecting stuffed animals, and making model kits. These may be seen as childish, but that doesn’t mean whoever likes them is a child. It’s just a stigma around such things. I also think an important part of having good judgement as an adult is realizing when something is not worth it, or just generally doesn't make sense, like, for example, someone telling you there isn't a minimum word count or otherwise poorly explaining something and only elaborating a few days before an assignment is due, causing confusion and stress for people.

Here's a video from the author about why we need to grow up.