Reading Response-Girl In Translation

   Our lives are always complex due to problems that are developed
during our Coming of Age. They push us off our road to our goals
of who we want to be. In the book Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok,
it describes a perfect example how Kimberly's dreams of having a
successful life for her mother and her in the future, but Coming of Age
problems like love interfere with her life as a teenager growing up in a
different country but with the same problems as any girl her age. One
example of this is love which spread like wildfire in her mind burning up
what really mattered to her. Her dreams. How did Coming of Age problems
affect her road to complete the dreams she made?

  One issue of Coming of Age in Kimberly's life would be love. Kimberly's
mother told to never spend too much time on socializing and such since
she knew it would mess up her mind and grades in school. There were
only two guys she liked in the story, One was a boy in school that was
decently rich and going to be successful in life while the other was from
another part of her life in her labor factory who life was of course to work
in a factory. Having to think about two guys at the same time and work
seriously in school had hindered her focus on school. Also It hindered her
life outside of school, going to parties instead of studying.

   Another issue of Coming of Age is competition/expectations. Various times
in the book she would know that her aunt who provided them a home and
job, also had a son who was the same age as Kimberly. His name was Nelson
and at times Kimberly's aunt would be jealous if Kimberly would do good in
school while she should be proud like Kimberly's mother was. Although
in the beginning of the story she didn't show her mother her work from
school was because she had been doing bad while her mother big expectations
of her. Sometimes her aunt would invite Kimberly over to have some kind
of competition with Kimberly's mother on which parent had raised a better child. 
 
   Coming of Age also helps you develop a personality or a opinion on the people
you, how you want to live life and how you want to get where you want to get.
of course this separates you from people and some people might like who you are
some might not. Like in Kimberly's story she proved to be a very good person to
her friends but some people like her aunt might not care seeing how she is.

   In life these problems are always there. They will always affect a teenager's life
one way or the other. No matter where your from or what kind of life you live
in, Coming of Age problems will always find a way to complicate your life.
Though they are bad they also had good side to them. In solving these problems
you'll know how to deal with your life all rhe way through your life. Its kind of
like gaining experience, or maturity, or learning what ideals,beliefs, and dreams
you will honor. In Kimberly's life it seems as though they were affecting her. It
also affected her in good ways too. She still had made it through life reaching
her dreams of being successful in life. Those Coming of Age problems problably
had made her road crooked but it gave her the strenth to move forward in life.

Artifact Response 1

   What had become important to me during the coming of age in my life
was music. It isn't a physical artifact but it was just as important as a
physical one. When I was little I wouldn't listen to music that much since
most of the time I wouldn't understand the song or I would be bored of it.
Since my coming of age I think the reason why I liked it suddenly was
because in everyone's coming of age we all develop a sense of who we
are or want to be. We then develop hobbies or opinions for ourselves.
So through coming of age we realize who we really are. What we can get
through coming of age is the objective of why we want to and are living
for. Although we realize what we want to do in life, but some of these
revelations could be fake and then we will end up making mistakes in our
life. I only think its part of life to have a trial and error process to find what
it is that you get through coming of age.