In his major work, ‘Les rites de passage’ (The Rites of Passage, 1909), French ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep delved into the ceremonies marking the important stages of various cultures, laying the groundwork for other anthropologists to expand on. Today, van Gennep’s famous coined phrase ‘rite of passage’ is more often associated with highly ritualized religious and social ceremonies marking milestones in the transitions of people’s lives.
Born in Germany, van Gennep moved with his mother to France, at the age of six, where he was educated and spent most of his life. According to his count, van Gennep learnt a remarkable number of 18 languages, which provided him with the added advantage of being able to utilize linguistic and philological facts in his ethnographic studies. Analyzing hundreds of these life rituals across cultures geographically in his luminal work, van Gennep observed that they all share an underlying form, consisting of a tripartite process of separation, transition, and incorporation. The ethnographer noted that these rites can be found everywhere in our society and at all stages of our lives, whether it be birth, engagement or marriage, to mention a few.
Over the coming weeks, an important annual rite of passage will be occurring around the world: high school graduation. It can be argued that this is one of the most important rites of passage in one’s life, although, more often than not, one is hardly cognizant of this salient fact at the time.
Students are usually anxious to be rid of the boring schedule of classes, which they generally consider to be a wholly unnecessary rote of the institution of high school. They are by this time tired of the projects, homework, mindless field trips, tests, reviews, PTA meetings, report cards, parent-teacher dialogues, prize days, conducting reviews, resolving such difficult conflicts of time as whether to attend basketball practice or finish the geography project, and all the other rituals heaped upon teenagers eager to step out into the ‘real’ world. Little do they realize that in actuality, the best time of their lives has come to an end, the last 16 months of the pandemic notwithstanding.
The 2021 high school graduates are stepping into a world in a state of flux, where uncertainty hovers like an unexpected eclipse of the sun, and too many are unsure of what the future holds. These graduates will suddenly discover that the mirage of carefree high school days is out of sync with the reality of what adult life constitutes. The truism that life is a series of choices and one must live with the decisions one makes can be a harsh welcome mat to the real world.
All graduates, regardless of their grades, are blessed with one common commodity, time. Disciplined time management, they will discover, is the key to self development. A quick review of how they managed their ‘free time’ during the last 16 months will highlight their strengths or shortcomings in this area, along with the often overlooked fact of how limited their (actually available) time is, and how quickly it disappears. What they select to do with their time over the next five years will lay the foundation for the rest of their lives, and the importance of its management and synchronization with both long-term and short-term goal planning needs to be emphasized now. Graduates will discover with time (no pun intended) that the simple act of keeping a daily journal is a useful tool in monitoring their progress, and ironically, it does not require much time to record entries. Time is of the essence and graduates should make the most of it.
Indecision or no decision will not cut it, they will have to make up their minds and choose between getting a job, or pursuing a career either via tertiary education or apprenticing in a trade. The field of available choices has exploded greatly in the last 40-odd years and the traditional five standard professions of architecture, accountancy, dentistry, law and medicine are no longer held out (except by the pretentious and the still socially conscious) as the holy grails to the path of success – read wealth — in today’s terms.
Whilst it is apt to commiserate with the plight of this year’s graduates over the repercussions of the pandemic on their final year and a half in high school, in time to come they will proudly remember these trying times and how they were forced to adapt to the unstable environment and the constantly changing rules and regulations imposed on the society as COVID-19 spread. At high school reunions in later years, when the angst of not being able to attend their graduations and proms will have worn off, they will perhaps fully appreciate their resilience and finally be able to look back at these days and laugh. When all is said and done, these are still good times.
To those who have persevered to achieve this rite of passage, society offers its congratulations and best wishes for a long and rewarding career in whichever endeavour they select to pursue. The Desiderata, American Max Ehrmann’s prose poem composed almost a century ago offers enduring advice that is still applicable in today’s world and which every high school graduate should take to heart: “Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
“…Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
“…And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
