Individuals can face these roadblocks early on in life, possibly as early as elementary school, and all of these challenges make it difficult to reach identity and self-understanding. ... Instead, the line, "I sat all morning in the college sick bay/counting bells knelling classes to a close/at two o"clock our neighbors drove me home," suggests a feeling of impassiveness, almost annoyance that he has to leave his life at school to travel home to console his family. ... Instead of pursuing his identity and feeling like an independent adult at school, he is forced to come back to his family wher...

• Word Count: 2322
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The parental instinct is a driving force as we move from the selfish teenage years into the stable and forward-thinking years of our 20's and 30's. ... Studies have shown that children of same-sex couples fare no worse than their peers in the areas of mental health, social functioning, and school performance (Pappas 3). ...

• Word Count: 1723
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is 10:30PM on Sunday November 30, 2002 and Tom is driving his nineteen-year-old daughter Amy to Penn Station. ... My parents are currently struggling with a messy divorce, my sister is applying to residency schools to be an anesthesiologist, my mother has been increasingly depressed, my father has moved out, and I was prescribed the maximum dose of anti-depressants an individual can take. ...

• Word Count: 3707
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate