In the book To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, Scout is a little girl with a short temper. She always finds herself in fist fights. Her father then tells her to stop using her fists and swallow her anger. On page 102 her cousin is insulting her father, and as she is about to attack him she thinks of her father. And she walks away. She says "It was the first time I ever walked away from a fight."
She backed down a fight. Something she would have never done a year ago. But she grew, she really thought about her fathers words. She may still just be a little girl, but she took a big step up by thinking before she did. If she hadn't she would be betraying her fathers trust, and taking a step back in her process of growing up. It may have felt like it was something she needed to do it didn't mean it was necessarily the right thing to do. It shows she knows that now. Scout has come to an age where she can think, not just do.
When I was younger every night I would sleep with my stuffed dog that I named Black Dog. If I didn't have him it was impossible to sleep. At my house, at my grandmothers house, at a friends house, any where I was I had to have him. It was scary alone, because I felt a big connection to him. He may only have been a stuffed animal, but I had a theory that when I wasn't looking he would come to life. And at night when I was asleep he would stand guard and protect me from all the monsters. One night I went to a friends house and she lived about 45 minutes away. Before we went to sleep I realized that I didn't have Black Dog with me, and home was 45 minutes away. I had to be brave, that was the first night I had ever slept without my stuffed animal. It was a little scary but I had made it through the night unharmed. After that little by little I started to stop sleeping with my dog. It was a big step up for me. Just like it was for Scout we both had to give up something we did regularly, for her it was fighting and for me it was sleeping with a stuffed animal.
As we grow we think about things and give things up. We think we are keeping ourselves protected by doing these things, but as we get older we take down those shields, and find other ways to deal with our problems. It may be hard and feel weird, but it is just a part of growing up. Learning how to defend/protect ourselves the right way.
