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Mona's first coming of age when she hears about a murder and her first childhood friend, "her tree in her backyard," is cut down. After this, Mona becomes a fighter/gang associate. Mona's next coming of age is when "a spare bullet grazes her neck" and kills a gang member. This results in Mona instantly growing from gang life, and now Mona wants a real life. Mona escaped from the gang scene but could not escape Frank's grasp. Mona's third coming of age happens after the whole frank situation and the Police Test. Mona is now a cop and has had a problem involving a shootout. This situation's outcome results in her questioning the "weight of her badge." Mona later comes to terms with the weight of her badge and continues doing police years after this event.

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Mona Finally Climbing Over The Brick Wall

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Mona's life goal to be a cop got hindered many times, but she climbed past every wall she encountered to achieve her goal of cop. Even when she fell down the rabbit hole of gangs and gang life, she still found a way out. Mona's brain fog of gangs cleared when a spare round of ammunition "grazed her neck." She decides to move on from gang life, so her life is no longer in danger. However, then Frank enters her life, starts controlling her, and gets her out of her job. Mona had to try and try to get out of the dangerous situation. Eventually, one of the attempts succeeded, and Mona got away from Frank. Even later on, when Frank tried to come back to mess around, Mona called the cops and brought him to go away for good. Eventually, they pass glances and move on with their lives. The Final hurdle to proving Mona's Perseverance was the job of being a cop. Before becoming a cop, she had to get past a wall. Eventually, she ends up training for days and gets above it, but not without injury. She passes the test and Moves on to Police work. Police work was difficult at first for Mona because of the unfamiliar grid system, but once she got in place, she got set. Overall, Mona had lots of Perseverance to get this far from where she was.

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Mona's balancing of her two lives leads her to become an excellent cop for gang neighborhoods, thanks to her experience in gangs. The balancing starts once Mona tries to go and get a job as a cop. She must keep acting like a gang member to avoid losing her friends. Nevertheless, she also has to keep her attitude up at her work; otherwise, others believe she will not make it. After the frank incident, Mona decides to go and try to be a cop again. The difference is that Mona now is no longer a gang member. The balance between her old and new life is handy for some jobs. She has some excellent knowledge about many things related to current gangs but less information than the gang units. This inside information helps her to solve otherwise tricky cases with ease.

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The scenes in the book that highlight Mona's need to belong are when Mona joins F-Troop and when Mona joins the P.D. The F-Troop gang provided mona with the "sense of acceptance" she needed after Lydia left. Because her father wanted Mona to "be a Police Officer," Mona joined the Santa Ana Police Department. Joining the police force ends up repairing her relationship with her father, giving her acceptance from him. The lousy relationship formed because mona had "jumped" into a gang. Unlike Mona's siblings, her father hoped she would be a good child. Thus, Mona gained acceptance from her peers, leading her to an eventful life.

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Mona's admiration of her father early on affected Mona deeply. Mona got told many things she took into her later years, like being a cop. However, unfortunately, she could not avoid being in gangs for long, which her father despised. So once she had an opportunity at school to do something her father would have wanted, she took it. This improved relationship between the two resulted in Mona's father being "willing to forgive my past lapses." Then Mona, after ranking up a bit, has gotten new mentors to help her on her way. She admires them as friends who can help guide her to Police work. Then there was the whole frank incident which blinded Mona. After that, though, admiration returns to Mona, and she finally realizes, after many attempts from her father and Frank's mother, that she should split. So she splits up and finally completes her cop course, to which she gets her badge. Overall admiration played a critical role in getting Mona into higher-level jobs.