Growing Up and Growing Old Summary

Caroline Kennedy dedicates this portion of the book to transitions from girls growing up to women entering middle age, "something no one wants to be." She observes that "the choices we make during these transitions determine who we are and who we become. Each stage of life is different than we imagine it will be."

In Margaret Atwood's "You Begin," the poetic narrator addresses a child learning to smudge colors and to make letters. In this first step toward the adult world, the poet advises the child that the world is "fuller and more difficult than I have said" but that the loss of innocence will be traded for more knowledge. Edna St. Vincent Millay expresses amazement that her childhood tantrums gave way to domestication and bed at "half-past eight" in "Grown-up." In "Puberty&mdash...