We never stop growing.

I have experienced, first hand, two of the three adolescences, and closely observed the third. The three adolescences are the Teenage Years, Midlife Crisis, and Becoming Elderly.

Adolescence, in essence, is the process of adaptation. As we get older, we all reach points when we must make choices about our identity and routines: discarding the old worn out assumptions about ourselves and doing the work to establish new routines that are appropriate to our lives at that time.

All three adolescences are rough. The first is usually made worse because of inexperience. It is done randomly; solely by trial and error. The other two are better, depending on the maturity of the individual; their willingness to look at themselves and their environment realistically. Most are willing to do this work because resisting adolescence is always violent and destructive, to ourselves and/or those around us.

Thinking in fractals, all levels of individuality experience adolescence. From individual people, corporations, institutions, and governments.