There are different types of partnerships throughout life. As children, we pair up with a “best friend” or two. In school, we are taught to work with others and often are assigned to work with partners. As adults, we may have partners at work (such as law firms, where the name of the firm consists of the last names of all the partners) and we may find a “life partner” – i.e. a spouse. All sorts of endeavors are accomplished by partnering with others; it’s called “teamwork.”

I have chosen pictures for this challenge that involve two people in different stages of life.

CHILDHOOD: SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS

As a former teacher of bilingual students, I often used Reader’s Theater, which the kids loved, to improve their reading and speaking fluency. Here are two second grade boys who worked on one short play together to perform in front of other classes.

Children do a lot of things quite naturally with a partner. Here are two kindergartners who are proud to show off the scene they made out of blocks. (Another partnership creates their own structures behind them.)

I was in charge of an ecology club one year, and we had a paper drive competition between the classrooms. The students in the club partnered up to do different tasks during the drive. Here are two boys helping each other with taking the recycling bins full of paper out to the container behind the school.

CHILDHOOD/ADOLESCENCE: COMPETITION PARTNERING

In my home town, Christmas trees are set up in a downtown plaza, and different groups of school kids decorate a tree with ornaments they’ve made, as a competition between schools.

YOUNG ADULTHOOD: WORK PARTNERSHIPS

Recently we hired two young men to paint several rooms in our house as well as our front porch. One of them is semi-professional and the other is his apprentice. Their partnership works well and they did a professional job!

Chris & Mateusz take out the air conditioner in the dining room – never done since we’ve lived here!

ADULTHOOD: MAKING MUSIC TOGETHER

At my niece’s wedding, her brother and his father-in-law paired up to play music at the ceremony.

MIDDLE ADULTHOOD: FINDING LIFE PARTNERS

Friends of mine recently got married, forming a new partnership in mid-life.

MOTHERHOOD: PARTNERING COMPETING INTERESTS

Finally, here is a funny picture to illustrate a different sort of partnership: Another niece at a wedding, holding, in one hand, an “adult” cup, which contained an alcoholic beverage, and in the other, the sippy cup of her toddler son, half-filled with milk. It’s an illustration of her life: the competing interests of being an adult and caring for a child.