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Throughout the stages of later adolescents, sexuality starts to play a major role in the development. This is a time when individuals start to explore their different sexual feelings, attractions, and preferences. The process of understanding and navigating during this stages look different for all people, as each persons starts the process when they feel that it is right for them. This stage of exploring sexuality can contribute to one forming healthy relationships, finding self-acceptance, building confidence in informed decision making. Having that said, I started this process in my later adolescents. I had my first long-term relationship of 5 years start when I was junior in high school and it ended my junior year of college. Having that experience start late and end 5 years after, I did not explore long, there is still so much that I am learning to this day about what healthy relationships are supposed to be like and so much more. However, I am now in a happy relationship that continues to grow and teach me more and more each day. Being that I am still learning to this day shows that this process truly has no end and there is always more to learn in these aspects even beyond the adolescent stages.

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High school graduation picture, featuring my lovely parents that have supported me every step of the way. 

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Achievement in the adolescent stages can be experienced all throughout their individual development. For instance, achievement in adolescent development can can occur in a handful of different areas such as sports, academics, home experiences, and personal goals. The achievement process for individuals in this stage consists of people working to meet set goals, reach milestones, and making themselves and people around them proud. With that being said, there were quite a few achievements that I was blessed to be able to make in these stages. In the presented picture, it resembles much more than what it looks like. Yes, it is me graduating from high school which is a huge achievement in its self, but I am also holding an award of excellence in which I received from my coach, and I graduated on the honor role which is a big achievement for me as school never came easy to me so never did I think I would be able to conquer that academic goal of mine but I did.

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Intimacy has a big impact on adolescents development. Intimacy during these stages will help individuals start to form more meaningful bonds and connections with family, friends, and significant others. Through the bonds and connections that are being explored, it will let people share their thoughts, open up, feelings, gaining a sense of belonging, finding a secure support system. While all that is important, people at this stage and intimacy also are experiencing and finding their sexuality. The picture that I have chosen resembles an intimate connection between my grandparents. Throughout my adolescent development, I was given the opportunity to look up to the love they shared with one another and it led me to forming the same meaningful bond they shared with my significant other. Watching them throughout the years led me to fully explore different bonds and connections to the fullest, in order to hopefully some day find what they had.

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During the stages of adolescents, autonomy has a large impact as it encourages and helps individuals grow to develop a form of independence. Through autonomy not only does it help develop a senses of independence but also allows for youth to start making decisions for themselves. With that being said, it will ultimately allow for them to explore the sense of control, while also helping shape their identity. In correlation to that information, the picture I chose is my graduation picture. This picture expresses a personal decision that I was able to make for myself. That decision was choosing to continue my education beyond high school. This specific decision was huge and would not only effect me in that moment but would affect my future path as well.

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In the stages of ones adolescences, individuals are constantly changing and trying to find things that fit their best interests, making this this development a central focus in these stages. Individuals through identity development are working to explore and form their own sense of self. This means that there is constant experimenting happening in order to reach the the level of one discovering their true self. Overall, this form of development in these stages remains crucial across the board because it can ultimately impact the path and decisions one chooses to make down the road. With that being said, my artifact shows an image of my family. Through finding my identity, my family constantly provided me with support, love, care, education, gave me a sense of belonging, guidances, and encouraged me to be the best version of myself. They constantly stood by me and provided a safe space for me to discover my sense of self. Ultimately, my family has made an extremely positive impact on my development during these stages, and I truly do not know where I would be without all that they offered me.

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Within the longevity of one’s adolescences stages partaking in work, different leisure activities, and using the media have immense impact on individuals experiencing these stages. Working during these stages can be crucial in developing different communication skills, gaining a sense of responsibility, time management, money management and much more. Pushing oneself in these stages to partake in different leisure activities can be extremely beneficial in building social connections, finding individual interests, and create sense of relaxation/comfort in ones well-being. On the other hand, media is interpreted differently within each individuals experience, it can have an immense impact both negative or positive. For my chosen artifact picture, it shows me partaking in cheer which throughout these stages in my life was my leisure activity. This sport/activity has taught me so many different life lessons, helped me develop so many different skills that I am able to use in life, and allowed for me to gain experiences in social connections.

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School plays a critical role in the stages of development in adolescences. There is no limit to the impact that schools of these stages in our lives. Teenagers spend a significant amount of their time at school. In school, adolescents not only gain knowledge and academic skills, but they also learn important life skills and deeper develop their social and communicative skills with not only their peers but adult figures as well. In my experience and time spent at Sylvania Northview High school, it helped me navigate different social situations, work in groups, and develop relationships with teachers and other authority figures. Also, through extracurricular activities offered, it allowed for me to explore my interests in talents in cheerleading outside of the classroom, which now to this day I am still a student athlete. Another thing my school offered me is structured environment that promoted courage, discipline, and having a set routine. During these stages, I was on IEP and struggled with school extremely all the way up until my junior year of high school. Never once did I believe in myself that I could make it college, but a handful of my teachers and IEP teachers believed I had what it took. With that being said, I’m extremely grateful for my time spent at NHS and for my teachers that believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, because here I am now about to finish up my senior year of college.

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Throughout the duration of the individuals adolescent stages, experimenting in different peer groups holds a significant role. Being that peer groups play such a significant role in these stages, they leave profound impact on the development and experiences. The impact on the development and experiences appear as these peer groups start to shape individuals sense of self, behavior, social skills, communication skills, and much more. Presented in the attached picture, are four different peer groups that I encountered being apart of throughout my adolescences. Each group that I took part in were very different, and each individual that was in it had their own uniqueness about themselves. While not all of my experiences were within these groups were Ideal, I learned so much about myself and who I wanna surround myself with. With that being said, the people that I would consider my close circle to this day are people that have positively impacted and encouraged me to be the strong independent women that I am today.

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During the adolescent stage, social transitions serve a critical part in all teens development. These transition are for seen at the first step of transition from childhood to adulthood. Within this time, adolescents tend to start developing new types of social relationships with wider range of people, while also starting to gather a broader understanding of different roles they hold to other people. Adolescences will also start to become more independent in choosing their own friends and spend considerably more time with peers, making them more easily influenced by others. The struggle during this transition is to gain and maintain self-esteem, being able to maintain the self-esteem is critical for this transition. At this stage, I frequently struggled figuring who I was, who I wanted to surround myself, and struggled maintaining a good self-esteem. Having that mentioned, is where the chosen song comes into play because I constantly felt I had to hold everything in and fake my way through a lot because I was so unsure of who I was/wanted to be, who I wanted to surround myself and how couldn’t keep maintain a healthy self-esteem.

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Within each family, there are different styles of parenting displayed. Having that been said, there are known to be 4 different types of parenting styles that can be displayed those being authoritarian, authoritative, indulgent, and neglectful. These different styles can influence the overall dynamics, communication, and relationships within the family as a whole. Each style of parenting has their own approach to how one disciples, nurtures, and set rules/expectations. With that all being mentioned, at a very young age my parents made to decision to get a divorce, this allowed for me to experience two different forms of parenting styles. My mother took the approach of authoritative style parenting. She was constantly there for me during my development encouraging and supporting me to the be the best versions of myself, throughout her continuous encouragement and support, she also laid out set expectations and rules that she wanted me to abided by. Having that support and encouragement, made me more adaptive to respect her expectations and rules she had for me. We to this day, as represented in the chosen picture have an unbreakable bond because of the way she raised me. My father on the other hand, took the approach of neglectful parenting. When I needed a father figure most in my life he was absent, often when I would reach out for help or advice with certain things it would get pushed aside. With his choice of choosing the neglectful parenting style, to this day I rarely communicate with him, let alone have a relationship with him.

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Cognitive transitions refer to changes in cognitive abilities and processes that occurring during eh adolescent stages. This is time period when significant growth is shown within skills such as thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision making. Alongside these skills, the transitions also involve developing abstract thinking, improve memory, increased attention span, and the about ability to think about multiple perspectives. This time period is very exciting and full of extreme amount of growth, however for me this staged looked different. During this stage, I was diagnosed with ADHD which is know as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This disorder can affect these transitions due to the fact that it impacts attention, focus, and executive functioning skills. However, it took me along time to accept that just because these transitions were impacted differently for doesn’t mean I couldn’t comprehend and develop the same cognitive skills as everyone else, just all journeys look different. The chosen picture expressed how my brain felt most of the time during the stage of these transitions constantly lost, stuck with the unknown, and many others.

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In female adolescence, there are several biological transitions that occur. The chosen picture creates a visual representation of the biological transitions. Several of transitions that are conveyed consist of onset menstruation, development of different body parts, growth of hair in new areas, growth in height, acne, and much more. The journey of transitions in adolescences can look different for each individual. While there are some common biological transitions shared, the timing and pace in which they occur varies from person to person. For instance, the summer going into my 5th grade year is when these transitions started to occur for me. I started my menstrual cycle and acknowledge growth in body parts that I had not experienced before, and by the time I knew those around me could tell too. These changes created large amount curiosity within my brain and started to make me wonder if my friends were also having the same experiences. With that being said, when these changes became visual for others and talking about curiosity it made me feel like I stood out and was experiencing these transitions too soon. But now being able to learn more about this journey, it truly is different for all and no one is alone.