Maddie Hansen

Mr. Rhem

English 9

August 29, 2018

Coming of Age

Walking To Listen, ​by Andrew Forsthoefel, is about the author walking across America

to hear people’s stories. One of the main reasons why Andrew Forsthoefel walked across the

United States was to figure out what “coming of age” meant. Coming of age is when you

become an adult, not by age, but by responsibilities and soul. Andrew Forsthoefel starts to

really listen more and more during the book. He also becomes a little more understanding

about people and realised to not judge someone because you never know about what has

happened in their lives and what they have gone through. Let’s say that someone is ignoring

someone or just being super quiet when they are trying to be friends with them. People would

assume that she is mean right aways. She might just be scared to talk to people because they

got bullied really bad in the past.

Andrew grows a lot by seeing how other people live. Seeing how other people live

expanded his view of the world. Everyone lives so differently, and Andrew realizes that

during his journey. It is amazing how everyone lives so differently but lives in the same

country. Seeing how people live was one of Andrew’s favorite parts of his journey.