Rites of Passage
October 23rd, 2009 | Categories: Life | 7 CommentsI never really experienced rites of passage that people typically do throughout childhood and adolescence. I had an unusual upbringing in the sense that I was consistently uprooted due to a number of overseas moves, which led to my general lack of knowledge/interest about these “traditional” rites of passage.
Here are a handful high school rites of passages I never experienced:
- Graduating from primary/middle school in order to enter high school
I left my first middle school in the US at the end of sixth grade, which meant I missed out on the eighth grade graduation. At my new school in Australia, students graduated from primary school in year six and not year seven. I transferred to my Australian school at the beginning of year seven, so I had just missed out on graduation. The first time I ever graduated from anything was when I completed high school! - Sweet sixteen birthday party
My sixteenth birthday was a quiet and lonely affair. I had just moved to Chicago from Australia, and I didn’t know anyone in Chicago besides my immediate family. My sixteenth birthday “party” was comprised of myself, my mother, my brother, and a chocolate cake. It was nice, but definitely not the sweet sixteen bash many kids expect on their sixteenth birthdays. - Driver’s license at sixteen
I didn’t get my driver’s license at sixteen. Honestly, I was never bothered by this, I managed just fine without one. Besides, I think sixteen is too young to drive; the thought of the sixteen year olds I know on the roads scares me. - Getting my first car
This ties in with the whole driver’s license thing, for obvious reasons. However, I also have zero interest in getting a car of my own. The area I live in has good public transportation, and where I go to for college has excellent public transport. Ideally I’d like to live in a city like London, Paris, or Hong Kong after I graduate from college, all of which have phenomenal public transport and there is no need for a car. I don’t want to deal with car payments, insurance, maintenance, gas… it’s all money I’d rather not spend on something I don’t see as needing. - Getting my first job
Unlike most teenagers, I didn’t get my first job in high school. I was on a student visa in Australia so I legally was not allowed to work, and then my final two years of high school took so much time and energy out of me that I didn’t even want to think about a job. (I don’t count babysitting gigs as an “official” job.) I did get a job at college though, it just took me a little longer than most of my classmates to get the ball rolling on the job front.
Tags: birthdays, driving, friday five, high school
Subscribe Feed (RSS)
Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
I think for obvious reasons (because you were travelling), that you didn’t get to experience these things, but it isn’t completely uncommon.
For instance, I don’t have a lot friends, and I hate parties, so my sixteenth birthday bash was mostly family and very, very close friends – I remember going out to eat, watching the “Asylum” episode of Supernatural and falling asleep on my new pillows.
I got my car at 15, which was my Nana’s old car, and I still haven’t gotten my license, and don’t know how to drive. I also haven’t gotten my first job, either, because I’m not yet in college.
You’re not the only one, and I also honestly believe that WE can make our own “Rites of Passage”, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be what everybody else is doing/might have done.
Aww, I graduated from kindergarten, grade 6, and grade 8. :P I still have a ways to go before my high school graduation, though!
Here I don’t think you can even get your license at 16. You have to take multiple tests, and you have to have a certain amount of time in between. I think if you take the first test on your 16th birthday you still can’t get it until you’re 17.
I don’t really feel the need for a car either; my city has public transport that serves its purpose (although I do complain about it a lot).
I just submitted an application for my first job, eee! (My best friend’s brother can probably get it for both of us.)
Rites of passage are lame! Rebel! Be anti-rites!
Funny enough, but the only graduation of mine I have ever attended with my middle school one. I missed out on high school in favour of a GED (wooooo!), and went “pfffft lame” for the graduation for my AS degree, and am looking forward to skipping out on my college graduation.
They’re so boring.
Boring as they may be, I am definitely going to attend my college graduation. I want everyone to know when I receive my degree! :P
I still don’t know how to drive and I am 24 now ha ha, gonna leave next year :)
I haven’t gone through any of those rites except the graduation from middle school.
*high-five*
You know what, I always thought it was weird that people had graduations from things other than high school and university. I don’t get it. Maybe just because we don’t have that here. But what’s so important about finishing grade 8? Why not graduate from grade 2? Or 11? I’m just very confused by the whole thing.
But anyway!