Noteboook prompt: What does coming-of-age mean to you?

 As a young person who is rapidly approaching legal and cultural maturity, does the concept of "coming-of-age" have any meaning to you? Do your peers and elders tend to speak about your growth and development and education in terms of your "coming-of-age"? What are some of the main ways we measure or acknowledge coming-of-age in contemporary American society? Where do you currently see yourself in terms of your own coming-of-age? How will you know when you've achieved it? Have you already achieved it?

As we embark on a semester-long course in which we will read and discuss a range of narratives about young people on the brink of this ambiguous and confusing milestone, please take 5 minutes to contemplate these questions in your first prompted notebook entry. .