In my own experience, my struggles with establishing a religious identity was less about rebelling against the beliefs of my parents, and were …show more content…
By leaving the parent’s house, even for a short amount of time like a summer trip to Europe, the individual is experimenting with the notion of self-reliance. Being able to choose were to go, eat, and sleep, feeds the ideas that the teenager is in control of their own life and decisions. Larsen and Buss make an interesting point that the act of traveling, regardless of the location, to search for one’s identity, the location is not important (p. 311). The actual location is inconsequential compared to the decisions made along during the trip. In this aspect, the struggle is less external and more based upon self-constructed challenges that the individual most overcome without the support of a parental …show more content…
And as time went on, I kept many and disregarded even more. In many cases, wearing certain masks allowed social domains to open that were previously unknown to me at the time. For example, for a long time I attended theater classes, believing that acting would allow me to overcome social anxieties and express creativity. I would later disregard this as I was never comfortable acting in front of people. But what wearing this mask allowed was the opportunity to enter into Technical Theater classes. The class built the sets, lighting and sound used during school performances. This allowed for creative expression while also not acting in front of people. By temporarily experimenting with a mask, I was able to enter into a social group that I was previously unaware