Poetry in motion

In the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, we see Stephen Dedalus wanting to be an artist. He wants to write poetry and be different (or even superior) than his peers. The first time we see him write poetry was when he was a younger boy. He sits down, writes a perfect precise heading for his poem, and then... He write the poem how he thinks it should be written. He doesn't really write from the heart at all, he tries to fufill this preconceived  notion of what poetry should be instead of what it actually is. I think this is kind of odd since Stephen at this point is trying to be different than the other people his age (for example when he is at the party and sits in a corner instead of actually socializing). 

As Stephen goes on throughout the novel, he begins to come of age and tries to find himself while struggling with wether he should be the artist he wants to be, or follow the church (which is what his family and friends are basically pressuring him to do). 

Later in the novel he has a vision and with this he decides to be an artist. He passes out and when he wakes up he writes a poem. I'm sure he has written more poetry between the first poem he wrote at the beginning of the novel and this one. Although we didn't see any of that other poetry I'm pretty sure this poem was the first one that was truly an authentic poem. The poem he wrote was very real, he didn't try to force this poem out, he didn't try to fit in with this preconceived notion of poetry he had prior to this. 

I think this moment in the novel is the real coming of age moment. He really delves  deep into himself and finds this poem. He really tries to write it himself rather than trying to write something he thinks he should be writing. This is an important point in the novel and I think that this is Stephen truly becoming a real artist, the moment I've been waiting for throughout the whole book. 

Coming of Age?

What exactly is "coming of age"?

Believe it or not, I think about this quite often. But no matter how hard I think about it though, no matter how long I spend trying to answer this question, I can never seem to find a real answer.

In my eyes, I'm not gonna know the answer for a really long time because:
1) Coming of age tends to be different for everyone.
2) I'm not gonna know that it happened when it happens.

My perception of coming of age tends to be when one "finds" oneself. Personally, I don't know if I've found myself yet.. I don't know if the person I am right now is going to be the same person in 5 years, or 10 years, or even a week.
Coming of age really isn't a single moment... It's more of a process. It's gradual and this is why I don't think anyone is going to know exactly when it happens.

I'm never gonna know when I've truly found myself until I'm much older. I think you truly know when coming of age happens when you look back and reflect on your life. Then, you might be able to pin point a time period where you truly came of age. But until then, I think it would be really hard to know when it happens.

When I'm older I will reflect back on this blog post, if this blog even exists then, and I will remember to reflect on my life.

To my future self: I hope you've enjoyed your life thus far and I hope there is much more to come.