Toni Morrison's Commencement Speech at Wellesly College on Adulthood Essay

Toni Morrison's Commencement Speech at Wellesly College on Adulthood - Essay Example When we talk about development, there are three phases- the future, the present and the past. The trick here is, to understand the realities of each phase face them and live each one of them with the greatest zeal. According to Toni Morrison, nothing gives one a more satisfactory feeling than becoming the adult at mind and heart- not in age. Age is inevitable and so is death, but adulthood is not! One can live being a child forever- immature, careless, insensitive and aimless. The beauty of being an adult is that one can work towards whatever he wants to achieve. Some people like Kardashian never grow up because they do not achieve maturity of the mind. Adulthood is about being content with the present, being happy about the bounties one has and working towards better every day. It is also about understanding the differences between generations and coming to a compromise to reduce discrepancy between generations. Furthermore, adulthood is the outcome of learning from experiences and mistakes that have been made during childhood and teenage, where the requirement is to acquire ample understanding of life from them. Morrison further clarifies this phenomenon by saying that adulthood in the global context requires one to make their story individualistic and different rather than just ordinary. Every adult has the opportunity to make at least his own circumstances different and personalized in the context of his individual circumstances. Morrison believes that every individual who is mature enough to be called an adult should have the tolerance and patience to bear problems and develop tolerance in oneself for others and for things that are out of one’s control. Instead of whining about a specific situation, one should make desirable effort to achieve results that would make things relatively better. Morrison believes that it is the