新视野三版 读写 B2 U3 Text AJourney through the odyssey years1 Most of us know about the phases of life which we label to parallel differentage groups and life stages: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and oldage. We think of infancy before childhood and middle age before old age, witheach unique phase bringing its own peculiar set of challenges. Thesechallenges can be overcome by acquainting ourselves with them, such as thechild's need to learn, the adult's need to find the right career and build a family,and the senior's need for support and good health care.2 Interestingly, ideas about the stages of life are changing.3 In previous times, people didn't have a solid idea of childhood as beingseparatefromadulthood.Ahundredyearsago,noonethoughtofadolescence. Until recently it was understood as a norm that their induction toadulthood was completed as soon as they graduated from college. They wouldnow find a sensible job which would lead to a career. Then during this careerthey would start a family, ideally before they turned 30.4 Today we have an equivalent need to recognize a new phase of life thatcomes after high school graduation, continues through college, and then leadsto starting a family and having a career, the so-called odyssey years. Recenttrendsshowradicalchangesasyoungpeoplearefollowingadifferent agenda. They take breaks from school, live with friends and oftenreturn to living with their parents. Similarly, they fall in and out of love, quit onejob and try another or even shift to a new career. So, we need to recognize thisnew stage, the odyssey years, which many now consider to be an unavoidablestage in reaching adulthood.5 People who were born prior to the 60s or 70s in the last century t...
