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I am proud to say that I have completed this assignment while abiding by the HFC Academic Integrity Policy. My work was completely done by myself without any form of AI.

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In what stage of our lives do we enter after high school? It is during this stage of life that we are entering adulthood, which can last into our late twenties. As adults, we must deal with the real world and test out our adult roles, whether we are looking for a job, getting married, or even becoming parents. One aspect of this chapter that appealed to me was how our cultural norms can impact our experiences as we enter adulthood.

In our textbook, on page 284 under the section titled Exploring the fuzzy endpoint: the ticking of the social clock describes how cultural expectations influence our perception of when we should begin our adult lives. The behavior that is considered appropriate at specific ages is defined by shared age norms. Having a timeline that matches up with society's expectations is considered "on time." Otherwise, it could be seen as too early or too late for our age.

This concept particularly resonated with me due to my own culture's belief which is that a woman who marries young between the ages 16-24 is considered on time. Since 16-24 is believed to be the ideal age for marriage and starting a family. As we get older, it becomes increasingly challenging for women specifically in our society to find a spouse or start a family. In fact, if a woman is not married by the age of 26, she may be considered off-time and face difficulties in finding a suitable partner.

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It makes me proud to be a Middle Eastern woman today on account of the rights I have over my ancestors. Until I read this chapter, I didn't realize how difficult it was for my ancestors not to do certain things such as getting married based on love instead of arranged marriages, getting a divorce if they were unsatisfied in their marriages, or getting a job. It is stated on page 311 under the section titled "Setting the Context: The changing landscape of marriage" that Western Nations developed the idea in the 20th century that couples should marry in their twenties to the person they love, that child care should be shared, and that staying in an unhappy marriage should be avoided. In addition, the choice of having babies out of wedlock or not getting married became normalized.

The section titled “Middle East: Male dominated Marriages” on page 313 struck a chord with me because it touched base on a lot of the values the Muslim community tends to follow that are based on cultural/traditional norms, but some of the points about religious beliefs were valid as well. Through the changing times, Muslim women began to become well-educated, child marriages became less likely, and divorce became more common. It disappointed me, however, to read in the text that divorced Muslim women felt they were bringing their families shame. Although divorce is inevitable in Muslim society, the woman is always blamed when a marriage fails rather than the man. I find it sad that Muslim women have to deal with such a great amount of pressure and expectations but if the men do not live up to their expectations, their shortcomings are less likely to be addressed.

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When it comes to life's last moments, what would you most like to have? From my perspective, I would like to have my loved ones around me, along with taking each moment one breath at a time, incorporating more activities that involve me to be as active as possible, and keep appreciating the little things in life.

In chapters 13 and 14, aging challenges are discussed along with strategies to make the most of your remaining life. Reading these chapters greatly enhanced my understanding of the importance of relationships with family and friends at this stage in my life. Nowadays, many people claim they love their small circles or do not enjoy connecting with others due to the fear of disappointment. However, we do not understand that while we fear gaining fake friends or being disappointed, we might end up with a friend who is closer to us than family, a safe haven for us for the rest of our lives. As stated on page 379, being positive, living a generative life, being open to others, remaining lovingly attached, and understanding that aging is a time of growth will allow you to live a purposeful and meaningful life.

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Midlife is the phase that lasts from around the late 30s to early fifties. This is the stage in life where people face both physical and psychological changes. Over the years people go through so many experiences which lead to personal growth. However, throughout my entire life, I heard a lot of people use the phrase midlife crisis in a joking manner but I never understood why. Midlife crisis refers to a period of self-reflection and reassessment that some individuals experience despite the challenges many individuals face they can still manage to navigate through midlife successfully.

As I continued reading Chapter 12 in our textbook under the section titled Midlife body image on page 339, this section emphasized how important physical appearance was to both men and women at this age. However, it didn't cross my mind that it would still be an ongoing issue. But now that I think about it, it does make sense because women tend to fixate on their body image more than men. To be physically appealing is essentially important to happiness at any age but I guess the emphasis is on how these negative thoughts can impair sexual desire on top of the changes in sexual performance for aging men and women make it harder. Body Image is a serious and sensitive matter that everyone deals with but to see that people struggle with it during adolescence and can carry it out in midlife is unbelievably shocking to me.

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Based on the results of the quiz, I have a life expectancy of 89 years. It was interesting and helpful to learn that how much physical activity we do as well as what we eat and drink can influence our lifespan the most. The questions about stress levels and sleep quality helped me better understand how mental health is just as important as physical health. Hopefully, I will make some changes to my lifestyle decisions to live a better and healthier life.

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Each stage in life is important due to the unique challenges, and opportunities for growth, learning, and fulfillment each stage has to offer. I believe adolescence is the "ideal" stage in the life span because this stage fosters self-discovery and independence. With the help and support of parent in this stage of life their children will be able to be more confident, and outgoing. This is why this stage is important and parents providing support will be able to prepare their children for emerging adulthood. Parents can also help their adolescents by enrolling them in youth development programs. As stated in Chapter 9 page 266 of our textbook youth development programs provide the youth with a safe environment allowing them to thrive. Especially, since these youth development programs foster the five C's which are comptence, confidence, character, caring, and connections. The five C's will help our children grow into caring, confident, social and outgoing adults in the future.

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This class was a great class overall because I was able to became more educated about the changes, and everything that we go through in life. I liked learning about the development of infancy and toddler-hood, and more about the adolescence phase. The reason why was because these are the main stages parental involvement and support are required to help their children grow and become responsible adults. Personally, I did not dislike anything about this course because it was such an interesting class then seeing everything I learned in class within my daily life and family was such a refreshing feel. I felt amazing being able to identify certain things I learned especially with my toddler niece. Even though this class was 100% online I loved how detailed, well thought, and clear the instructions were. As for the assignments I loved them all especially these discussion board projects they were a great way to change things up. Also I appreciated the fact that professor Buchanan was easy to reach throughout the semester.