The Year of Billy Miller Coming of Age Quotes

When it comes to growing up, sometimes Billy would rather stay put. But Sal is ready to go full force into elementary school. Right away, it's obvious that growing up might seem super fun or super scary, depending on who you ask. But we've got a feeling Billy might have a different attitude by the end of this little journey of his.

Billy is only in second grade but he's already thinking about looking older—or at least not looking too young and "babyish." And he figures that calling his dad "Papa" is a sure fire way to look like a little kid instead of the strong second-grader he wants to be. Keep an eye out for other places where Billy's fear of looking "babyish" creeps up.

Billy's convinced of one simple fact: Emma Sparks is like an adult in miniature. And he's got a pretty specific definition of what it means to be an adult—for Billy, it's all about the walk, the talk, and the clothes. According to our main man, then, maturity might not be about birthdays but about attitude. And boy does that Emma girl have some attitude.

Sal is a three-year-old going on thirty, and it sounds like she just wants to shoot into adulthood and never look back. So when she learns how to find the words "a" and "I," this little lady feels like she's already hopped on the growing up bandwagon. And she's loving the ride.

Remember how Billy thinks that Emma acts like an adult? Well Emma thinks just the opposite of Billy. And she's got a word to describe our head honcho: "babyish." Yep, it's the same word that Billy thought earlier, and now Emma is flinging it in his face—and it stings. So now Billy is stuck looking like a little kid in front of the class bully, which isn't any fun. But if you ask us, Emma is also acting a bit immature. How do you think Emma is defining "babyish" here? And is she acting "babyish" in any ways herself?

Mama knows that new names mean that her son is becoming an older kid right before her eyes. Sometimes this makes parents happy, and other times it's a super scary thought. How do you think Mama reacts? The narrator tells us that there's some "sadness in her voice," so we know she's not super thrilled. Do you think she's just sad or is she also happy? Maybe nostalgic? Are there any other emotions wrapped up in her tone?

So it turns out it might not be as easy for Billy to change his ways as he thought. In fact, growing up and into using a new name for his pops can be a bit challenging sometimes. But the good news is that names don't necessarily matter to Billy and Papa's relationship. In fact, they don't matter one bit—Billy can call his pops "Dad" or "Papa," but it won't impact how close this pair is.

Sometimes being scared can make us feel like we're a little kid again and Billy doesn't want to feel too young. Check out how that one word came up again: "baby." Sounds like Billy's biggest worry is looking like he's a baby in front of other people. But that has us wondering: Does being scared really make you a baby? How do you think Billy is defining growing up here?

One of the ways Billy grows up is by learning to control his temper, and that means learning to bite his tongue when Emma decides to dish out some rudeness. The thing is that Billy used to be super affected by what Emma had to say, but now even though he's angry, he doesn't totally seem as hurt either. Somebody's grown up quite a bit, we think.

For Billy, it's been a year of growing up. And after a whole year devoted to becoming an older and better version of himself, our guy has made a lot of progress. Did you notice how he takes his dad's idea of this being "the Year of Billy Miller" and makes it his own? He's come of age in loads of ways, and in the end he's looking at that one year as a pretty cool time of going from "babyish" boy to suave second-grader.