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The ‘Long Winding Road’ to Adulthood

This article follows up the life stories of 15 young people from a previous study, all who grew up in a neighbourhood we called Clover Valley. Researchers have emphasized the risks encountered by young people growing up in depressed neighbourhoods such as Clover Valley. Most of the young people in our study have managed to more or less successfully negotiate different paths towards adulthood and for others (particularly among the boys) the paths have been more arduous. By analyzing more closely the life stories of three of the interviewees, I investigate how young adults actively construct and reconstruct their life stories in a way that has helped them make sense of the to and fro of life and how they have tried to influence the outcomes of their choices. In particular, attention is directed as to the ways Clover Valley has inscribed their life stories and how their experiences of growing up in Clover Valley has influenced the life courses they have taken. In focus is the resiliency of young people who overcome the odds against successful paths to adulthood and social inclusion. Central for an understanding of the long winding road to adulthood sketched in the life history narratives was the way in which their growing up in Clover Valley inscribed their different ‘possible selves’, especially their fear for possible selves.