Human Development and Anxiety

The world. Such a large concept, though, in essence it is quite minute. There is a constant turnover in the world. Everything is repeated. It may happen many generations later, but it is inevitable. There is always going to be an empire, that empire is always gong to fall. This is my documentation of events in the life of a poor Memphis soul. A lost soul, in search of something more. For every person, there is a repetitive motion that their life must go through. No matter their social class or life experience, everyone goes through it. There are, in this series of events, several stages that one always goes through. This essay documents those stages and the emotions with which each person experiences.


The beginning of this cycle is birth and early childhood. As soon as we come out of the womb, there are certain expectations that our parents must adhere to, no matter what. They believe that you, their child, will be something. They believe you will make something out of your life, and not be like them, having grown up to just become lost in the world. Parents strive for our first word, and our first steps, bragging to all of their friends about how smart you are, and how quickly you are developing. The flaw in this way of thinking is that not all children develop in the same way. Just as you will see later in life, as children develop into adults. We make our parents proud in these first few years.


Then we develop into children. At this point in your life, you will become slightly more aware of the world. This is how we begin to acquire our flaws and prejudices. Any prejudices that our parents put forth, will be mirrored through us. It may take years to break through these prejudices to become these perfect creatures that our parents want us to be. However, despite how many prejudices we manage to break down, we will never be truly perfect or comfortable with everything in the world. The closest to perfection we ever come, is when we are expelled from the womb, before outside influences begin to shape our outcome. This stage of development is often characterized by a disregard to laws and rules. This disregard may disappear for a few years, only to reappear in teenage years. This is when our parents begin to realize that we are NOT perfect beings.


The next stage encompasses the age of 10-12 years old. This stage is characterized by a distinct shift from childhood to what is commonly referred to as preteen. Children begin to understand greater concepts and begin to react to the world in more of a melodramatic way. They try to employ tactics of guilt to get what they want. In this, they act is if they do not know any better, when in reality, they know exactly what they are doing. This is when they begin to develop into the angst-ridden and anxiety-filled teens. The begin to try to center the world around themselves. Some children grow up, but never grow out of this stage. Some people are stuck in this stage until the world gives them a proverbial slap in the face. They become so engulfed in themselves, that they expect the world to always give them what they want. You find this mainly in yuppies (rich, white, spoiled brats). It is despair in with which we live and thrive.


We then reach the teenage years. This is when we grow up to lose ourselves. We begin to realize just how minuscule we are, and how meaningless our lives are. This is Kierkegaard’s favorite, I believe. Kierkegaard says that anxiety, or angst, is what truly makes us people. This anxiety gives us the feeling of importance and shows us that we have choice. Standing on a ledge, we can choose to jump, peer over, or just walk away. It gives us a feeling that nothing else can give us. It gives us power. However, with any power, this power can overtake us. We can sink so far into anxiety and angst, that it seems like we can never escape, and then our souls die. We begin to try and find direction for our lives. What we want to do when we grow up, whether to smoke or not, whether to drink or not, whether to disappoint our parents or not. They are all choices that come at us all at once, and we must differentiate what is merely peer influence, and what it is that WE want. This is our defining moment as people. We control the course of our lives at this time.



The whole idea of this development, is that we start as "perfect" beings and become angst-ridden beings. Kierkegaard would tell us that we experience this angst to make choices that will mold who we become.