My perception on life changed rapidly when I was informed of a tragic accident concerning the suicide of a family friend. This caused a rapid change in the way I thought about death, grief and sadness. “David Elkind proposed that formal operational thought also leads to adolescent egocentrism (difficulty differentiating one’s own thoughts and feelings)” (Sigelman, Rider, De George-Walker, Pg 173, 2013) This has impacted the way that I look at the world having gone through this experience I now see that people’s perception can change no matter what. I guess what’s trying to be said is that everyone’s perception is different and it is changing due to the experiences that we all encountering in our everyday lives.
The judgment that came after the tragedy was phenomenal. Greg Newham will always be loved and greatly missed but never will he be forgotten. Was it my fault that he died? Greg Newham was a teacher. If I had visited him when the bell rang after school would he still be here today? I did not understand his wife’s decision to not let me go to the funeral. And because of this, because I never got to say my final goodbye it is hard to let go. Hard to move on. A book written by Temple University in the USA about seeking closure states “closure typically implies that something is finished, ended, closed. Finally you can move on” (2014). Without closure I feel that I am always judging myself. Always questioning my motives, wondering if I could have done more.
The last aspect of cognitive development that was affected by
References: Sigelman, Rider and De George-Walker, 2013, Life Span Human Development. Temple University, USA, 2014, http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1800/2136_ch1.pdf