Loss of Innocence:

“She realized that she had naïvely believed that the workings of the world revolved around her and her family. Never before had she acknowledged that somebody else’s life might alter hers.”
― David Anthony Durham, Acacia: The War with the Mein

“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”
― W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Confrontation of the Adult World:

IT WASN'T until I was about 16 that I honestly grasped the reality that I was going to become an adult one day. Until that point I had subconsciously assumed that you were either a child or an adult, not both, and that I had been blessed by being born the former.

It was a sobering realisation. All of the special privileges I had become accustomed to - such as cheap bus tickets, endless leisure time and constantly being referred to as ''the future'' - were, I now understood, going to come to an end. Well, not if I could help it.

In defiance - or perhaps denial - I spent the following eight or so years, like most others my age, going all out to prove I was still young and still the future by staying out until 5am, drinking as if it were a sport and generally not taking anything too seriously.

These are the years, between childhood and serious responsibility, when the government refers to you as a ''youth''. It's a rather peculiar label that conjures up images of loitering and knife crime and yet gives you access to all sorts of government initiatives, competitions and forums, none of which you will ever get around to becoming involved with....

"By far, the biggest problem I ever faced while transitioning was letting go of anger and ego. As a kid, I used to get angry for the most insignificant things and I knew that I had to be more patient and let go of my short temper if people were to accept me in social circles.