Personal Experience

When I was in 5th grade, I still had no idea what was puberty. I have often heard of the word puberty around me but never really understand what the word mean. I am just like Callie who don’t know what exactly puberty mean and had to figure it out myself. Callie had to figure out things herself because Tessie “avoided bodily matters, too. She never spoken openly about sex…Milton was unable to discuss the birds and the bees with his young daughter” (284). Callie’s situation was very similar to mine because I came to New York City with my dad, living with my grandma and grandpa. I am often curious about why are some of my friends growing so tall. I remember one of my best friend grow 3 inches over the summer. I asked her how did she grow so tall all of the sudden and she told me the answer “puberty.” I want to ask someone about what was puberty but no one was able to answer for me because I feel awkward asking dad. Another reason I can not ask them because my family speak chinese, I didn’t know what is puberty in chinese. Even if I do, I won’t ask my grandparent because they move to New York City before I was born, so at that time, I still didn’t feel that close to them. It was my first time living with them and grandma won’t talk about sex or puberty with me anyway. When I was eating lunch at the cafeteria, I saw the girl who sits next to me has some light black hair on her legs. I wonder when did it appear and how it happen? Did it happen overnight? After I got home, I find out I also have some hair on the leg. So, I figure out maybe it just normal for people to have hair on their legs and arms. The next thing I notice was that some of the girls in the class were wearing bras. This was just like how Callie goes to school and found out that “during the growing months, quite a few of my schoolmates had-as adults liked to say- ‘developed’”(282). Instead of being ‘developed’ like my classmates, I start noticing pimples on my forehead. The pimples start to grow rapidly during spring of 5th grade. Sometimes the pimples were reddish and big and sometimes it small. At first, I was scare why there are reddish dots on my forehead. So, I called my mom and she told me the same answer“puberty.” So, I start to know what puberty is but not exactly. I still had to learn more about puberty before I totally understand it.