{"id":10601,"date":"2024-12-29T23:08:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T23:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=10601"},"modified":"2025-04-23T14:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T14:51:42","slug":"opening-remarks-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/opening-remarks-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Opening Remarks<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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We may have passed by milestones that proved our accomplishments to other people, but we have yet to prove ourselves to<\/em> ourselves.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Dear Reader,<\/p>

In my youth, I was a devotee of the style of book known as the \u201ccoming of age story.\u201d I did not consciously reach for these books (which are all too common in children\u2019s literature), but I read them eagerly when I found them. One of my favorites was Rosemary Sutcliffe\u2019s The Eagle of the Ninth<\/em>, in which a young Roman centurion, though crippled in combat, ventures into the dangerous unknown to restore the stolen honor of his father\u2019s legion. Another was Frances Hodgson Burnett\u2019s A Little Princess<\/em>, in which the pampered heroine is orphaned, deprived of all her riches, and greatly misused by those who ought to care for her\u2014yet discovers the inner strength to press on with bravery and kindness nonetheless. \u00a0<\/p>

Looking back, I realize that my favorite coming-of-age tales have in common the trope of the young person leaving home behind, being rigorously tested, and in the process discovering what he or she is really made of<\/em>\u2014inevitably, braver, stronger, and more resilient stuff than he or she could ever have imagined. When pushed to their breaking points, these heroes and heroines overcome the odds stacked against them, and having done so, they know two things: who they really are, and that they are really grown up now.<\/p>

In modern culture, we have some stand-ins for these moments of personal mastery that propel one from childhood into something beyond: things like graduating from high school. Or college. Buying a house. Perhaps marrying, or having children\u2014or finishing another level of graduate school, or getting that next promotion. Yet I have found in myself and in many of my colleagues a nagging sense of doubt: do any of these things really make us grown up<\/em>? How would we know for sure? We make uneasy jokes about what we\u2019ll do or who we\u2019ll be when we really<\/em> reach that mythic state. We may have passed by milestones that proved our accomplishments to other people, but we have yet to prove ourselves to<\/em> ourselves.<\/p>

The question of what it means to grow up\u2014now, today, in the culture that we are a part of\u2014is what this issue of Fare Forward<\/em> is about. In \u201cThe Right Thing for the Wrong Reason<\/a>,\u201d Christian Lingner looks at the ways we think and talk about finding meaning\u2014a discourse he suspects is missing a crucial point. Shawn Phillip Cooper writes in \u201cKing Arthur\u2019s Youth<\/a>\u201d about another of my favorite coming-of-age stories, The Sword in the Stone<\/em>, and the lessons Arthurian tragedy can teach us about choice and consequences. Jake Casale tackles our cultural obsession with looking back to an idealized childhood in \u201cWhen Nostalgia Grows Up<\/a>.\u201d And in \u201cPutting a Cap on Eternal Youth<\/a>,\u201d Griffin Gooch confronts his fear of growing old.<\/p>

The thread that ties these pieces together is this: that growing up, like life, is something that you absolutely must do yourself\u2014and that you are wholly incapable of doing without a great deal of help from other people. Moreover, it is what you are doing already, one way or another, whether you realize it or not. Good luck.<\/p>

Fare Forward,
Sarah Clark
Editor-in-Chief<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening Remarks for Issue 33: On Growing Up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-33-on-growing-up","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0085-Roman-Eagle-q75-1600x1200-1.jpg?fit=864%2C648&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10601"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10642,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10601\/revisions\/10642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?p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