Transitions Through Adult Life

Part 1Young AdulthoodChapter 1Coming on Strong: The Widening PerspectiveSOMEWHERE, SOMETIME, it happens. It may be sudden, as it was for John W. A northern stranger sharing the hot summer sun with the people of the South, he stood in front of a house. Fresh from his first year of college, one thing occupied his mind: the selling of books. But the little girl''s piercing yell blasted from his mind his salesman''s fantasies. He never forgot her words; they became part of a story he told repeatedly. "There''s a man in the front yard," she yelled. "A man." John actually looked around to see who the girl was talking about when the realization hit him, knocking him off his psychological balance. In the eyes of others, he had become a man. Now, he knew, he must become a man in his own eyes.Other young adults enter adulthood less suddenly. Some "marker event" may signal their arrival: marriage, enlistment in the service, voting. But that point in time, if there is one, is only part of a process that normally takes place between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four and may go on longer.The Atlas AgeBy the time the young adult starts getting cues from others that his life''s elevator has stopped at another floor, he has been receiving signals from his body, which has changed significantly from what it was in adolescence. Now it is a wonderful blend of balance, stability, and strength. At the top of their form from a physical standpoint, young adults are coordinated, graceful, and decidedly more comfortable with themselves than teenagers.1 Most are rid of the nuisances of adolescence: pimples, unpredictable sweating spells, clumsiness, and uncontrollable blushing. Those have given way to more mature physical and emotional responses.The body''s condition may be largely responsible for what is happening in the young adult''s inner world. Unconsciously, the physical strength and stability will be turning out streams of living confidence. Consciously, it will produce a satisfying sense of self-acceptance.2 The endocrine glands have steadied their flow and have balanced up the various hormonal secretions. Psychologically, a corresponding sense of "getting it together" and "getting on" takes place. That adds up to excitement, particularly when coupled with newly acquired freedoms. It is not that anxiety and fear are absent, but young adults have a confidence unmatched in any other stage of life.Getting into the ActRadical idealism, activism, altruism are the words most used to characterize the young adult. With those traits they make their mark on history. Hitler mobilized unemployed young adults as storm troopers, firing their enthusiasm with his dynamic speeches. The Peace Corp is made up mostly of young adults, and so was the Hungarian peace movement. Young adults are associated with compassion and sacrificial serving as well as with change and revolt.Their obvious social visibility shows up in religious movements. Take an imaginary snapshot of the contemporary evangelical movement and one might well ask, What could be accomplished without them? They join with Bill Bright, leader of Campus Crusade, who invites them to "come, help change the world." They sit at desks in seminaries and Bible colleges pondering their mission to the world. Many end up translating the Scriptures into all-but-forgotten dialects, offering help and hope to inner-city poor, or showing farmers in Central America how to get more crops from their small plots of ground.History proves that societies, dictators, and church leaders have impulsively sought to control, contain, harness, and even manipulate and exploit the young adults of the world. Their social, political, and religious importance and impact would itself be a fascinating study. But the objective here is to understand the developmental traits that lie behind those contributions.A Widening PerspectivePhysical might is behind the activism, as has already been suggested. Young adults'' bodies are ready; so are their wiSell, Charles M. is the author of 'Transitions Through Adult Life', published 1991 under ISBN 9780310536611 and ISBN 0310536618.