During this coming of age unit I spent some time reading the book "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" By: Sherman Alexie. In the book the main character Junior was being bullied at his school which was on a Native American reservation, and he took a step back and realized that all the people that live on the reservation have gone to the community school, and they have all ended up nowhere. This observation made Junior decide that he wanted to do more and better than all those around him and took it upon himself to go to an all white school twenty miles away off of the reservation called Reardan High School. This wan an very promising example of coming of age, taking on responsibility and being proactive. This could help me and I could apply it to my life by stopping and thinking about my actions and what the results would be. Although the main character Junior was considered a traitor for going to another school, in fact he lost his only real friend, and was beat up for doing so but he still continued because he knew it was what was best for him; He was also beat up at school by big jocks, but he fought back, he didn't just take it like he usually did, and by doing so the jocks stopped messing with him because now they respected him. There were many lessons that could be taken from this story, but the one that I feel is most important is being proactive, stopping and thinking before I make a move which is something that I will definitely apply to my life.
