I’ll Be There For You(?)

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/how-friendships-change-over-time-in-adulthood/411466/

What I enjoyed about this article was this real interpretation that not all friendships are going to last forever. As we transition from teenagers to young adults, then towards full-functioning adults, it’s sad for me to realize that perhaps one day the people who helped me shape the person I am today, won’t be around as much anymore. For me, it’s only until recently that I realized that friendships are more important than relationships, because I know that the one constant in this world is time. Throughout the years, people will continue to change further from who you originally knew them to be, but time will remain pushing forward. It’s the friendships right now that count, whether it is with a big group or a few select, because no one is certain of what the future could bring to any one of them. That is what the writing emphasizes in on the most for me, it’s that no matter how long you want to hold onto a moment, you can’t stop time from moving on. The author of this article wants to reassure readers that, although you may find yourself distancing yourself from your favorites as you grow older, what matters is the choices that you make on whether or not you are still willing to be there for that friend in the end.

Should You Allow Yourself To Be, Or Not To Be?

https://aeon.co/essays/how-feeding-children-s-ambition-only-sets-them-up-to-fail

What I liked about this article was the idea of tackling what it really means to have your dream become your career. At a young age, children are inspired to become anything they want to be. While that isn’t a bad thing, some children take it quite literally, believing they could be a dinosaur or whatnot (as exampled in the article). Adults may be there to encourage or guide you to your own goal, but they should also be there to ground you in some form of realism that you can achieve for yourself. I think the author tries to convince his readers that not everything is possible, at least, not yet anyways. He displays this best when he constantly refers to his previous experiences with the subject, or when he gives hypothetical examples as to what to do when a child believes he can surmount to anything. For me, the relatability of it all relies in the writing of how we sometimes give children false hope about their dream job. Once they realize they cannot achieve that, they feel completely wasted as an individual, and in hindsight perhaps feel like they have disappointed their parents in some capacity.