Part 1

            In life, I believe we have to go through many kinds of transition phases with or without we realized because change is inevitable. I personally think that different rituals of transition have different importance and values according to different persons. For some, it can be marriage, preparing for a new baby, getting their first job or even getting away from the ashes of depression. I can say that marriage is one of the important rituals of transition in Malaysia. Majority of Malaysians started their own families and have kids only after they got married. The main reason for this is because of the strong religion influence of Islam which prohibits sex before marriage. When someone got married, it means that he is ready for a bigger responsibility of having his own family and taking good care of them. Malay culture symbolizes marriage as a process of handing over responsibility of taking care a daughter from a parent to her husband. According to the Malay culture, there are some rituals of transition before a couple wants to get married. Firstly, the family of the groom-to-be has to come over to the woman’s house to propose her while seeking for agreement from her parents. When both families agreed with the decision, they will begin to plan the date and the details of the wedding.

Part 2

            I am not married yet thus I do not have much to say about the rituals of transition of getting married. In fact, I do not have any specific rituals of transition that I have gone through but the transition experience from living with my parents to living in a boarding school is something that I feel important in my life. I went to a boarding school which is located 59 miles from my house when I was thirteen. I am the only child in my family which makes me heavily attached to my parents. The transition process of entering the boarding school took around a year for me to adapt with. The first week was the worst as I really did not know how to adapt myself without my parents. I wanted to give up and left the school on that moment. I was terribly homesick that I tended to remember and miss my parents for every second. Even though it took quiet a long time to adapt myself but still, there were some improvements. I would say that I have such a great five years there. Until now, there are times when the memories crossed my mind and I kind of missed the moments being there with all my friends. Looking back at that moment, I feel good knowing that this transition phase makes me become more independent. Basically, I learned how to adapt myself with new environment and meeting new people Little did I know that this experience is much needed for my future as I am doing my degree abroad now.

Part 3            

Personally, I think that the idea of belonging-liminality-belonging is something that everyone has experienced in their lives. When it comes to college experience, I relate to this rite of passage so much as I am going through a totally new situation at a new place with new cultures and people. I believe that liminality or some would call as “culture shock” is a phase for someone to really understand what they want to do with their life. In college, this is the phase where we started to think about all the decisions that we made in our life. For example, some of us decided to further their studies and continue doing graduate degree while some decided that they want to secure a job right away after they graduated. Some might want to change their major halfway through while some might want to drop off college. It is like a phase of figuring things out while trying and experiencing many new things. I was always told to be an independent woman and have my own career with stable income so that I do not have to fully depend on my partner in the future. Explicitly, this is associated with the economy situation nowadays where both men and women need to have stable incomes to make the ends meet. Meanwhile, looking at it implicitly shows that women have equal rights to equal opportunities of having a good profession. Women should never be considered as weak and too dependent on men. With this being said, I totally understand the messages behind this notion and the implications that it brings into my life.