Starting out, starting over.

The right of passage of going to college is the best example I have of a right of passage experience I have been through. Other then my bat mitzvah that is, but the steps to that is a bit different! After I graduated high school and spent the summer at home working, I was off to Peoria Illinois to attend Bradley University. I began to experience the period of separation soon after I was all situated in my dorm and my parents drove off. I was excited and scared but mostly really happy. The college has a great welcome week to help new students become acclimated to their new environment away from home. My roommate and I, who I met at orientation, embarked on this new life together by attending the events, bbqs, parties etc. Since school didn’t start for a couple weeks we used our free time wisely, hanging out with other friends we met at orientation, exploring the campus and partaking in the mass consumption of alcohol and partying one can’t normally do in their parents house while in high school. I feel that the partying and free time to roam helps one deal with the period of separation very well. A few days before school started is when I would say the liminal period began. I picked up my books and found my classes, I had lived in the dorm for about a week and was now in routine as to where I kept my things, were I showered and got ready, where I ate or picked up my mail, all college ways of living. However, I wasn’t quite a college kid yet because I had never participated in a college class. Once classes started, I began to participate in the act of a college kid and after the first week or two of classes I began to transition into the third step to this right of passage. Although it was most likely official after I finished my first week of attending all classes, being assigned homework, and then participating in college activities that could symbolize the third step. Because all of these things means I am now assuming the role of a college student. The third step seems to drag out a while though, because you still have to experience first midterms and finals that can signify this as well. I never really felt homesick or out of place and feel that I transitioned fairly easily! I also then experienced these steps as I left Bradley and lived back at my parents attending a community college and then once again when i moved to the city to attened Columbia, and out of the three, the first was the easiest and best experience.