Part 1:
Rituals are very important for people in many cultures.They serve to motivate us, mark transitions and important events in our lives.  Rituals also are away to include friends, family and community during significant events we go through. Rituals of transition are important because they mark people passage of one status to another.  Some rituals of transition that are important in US life are Quinceaneras or Sweet sixteen, weddings, religious events like baptisms or bar mitzvahs . I think one important ritual of transition is the tradition of graduation ceremonies.  At almost every level of education, there are graduation ceremonies to highlight the achievements of the students. These graduation ceremonies start as early as preschool and continue to when they graduate college with their bachelors or PHds. 

Part 2:

A ritual of transition I went through was graduation. I had a moving up ceremony after finishing 5th grade, elementary school, and graduation ceremonies after 8th grade, middle school, high school and college. Some people might think that graduations during elementary or middle school are not important but going through these ceremonies has a significant impact. Graduation is a time for family and friends to celebrate the achievements of the graduate. Graduations show that finishing school is important . Finishing pre-school might seem like a huge accomplishment but celebrating this event is an extremely important event  for children to take part in. By taking part in graduation it serves as a platform for praise which can motivate children to keep going with their education. It is also important for their self confidence and celebrates their achievement. Graduating from high school and college is very similar. Graduation ceremonies take time to celebrate students achievements which they worked extremely hard for. More than that, for some families a graduating student from college could be the first one in their family to do so. The ceremony signifies a great achievement for the whole family.  
The most recent graduation ceremony I was a part of was my college commencement.  The weeks leading up to the end of the semester felt normal, Even though I knew this would be my last semester at college it just like any of the past semesters. I never felt like I was done with school and was thinking that I would back at the end of the summer. One graduation day, when I was surrounded by a crowd of graduates, dressed in my cap and gown it really felt like my last day of school. Everyone was talking about their plans for after graduation, what job they would be working at, where they would be moving. We said goodbye to our professors and friends  that we had the past four years and listen to speakers who gave us advice for the future. All these events during graduation finally made it seem that I finished college and that I would be moving on to the next stage of my life. Looking back at graduation, I feel really happy that I was able to be a part of it. It gave me a lot of really good memories that I would remember for the rest of my life. 

Part 3:
College is a very laminal state of our life. As mentioned in lecture 2, this is the “ transitional transformative stage” where there are few rules to follow because old and new rules don’t quite apply to the individual. This is the time where people for the first time don’t have almost any supervision and are independent. They are the ones responsible for things they need to get done but at the same time they can do almost whatever they wish. College was a very laminal stage for me because while I was did follow some of the rules I followed that my parents set I broke others. For example the time I woke up in the morning to what time i came back home was very different in college compared to went I was at home

College gives students implicit message and explicit messages about how men and women should behave based on gender. One example of an implicit message is the number of males and females in a specific type of class. Walking into an engineering class, one can almost always see that there are many more males than females. Conversely, in an education class, one can almost always see that there are many more females than males. The make up of these classes show that more males are in engineering while more females are in education. The message this could send is that males should be in a more science and math dominated fields while female , who might be stereotypically classed as patient and nurturing, should pursue a career in teaching.One example of an explicit message about gender college might give students is safety regarding students. When going out girls are always told be cautions and always go with a group of friends. Boys, on the other hand, are just told to have fun and not reminded of anything. Additionally, when walking late at night girls are always told to avoid staying out late . Boys don’t have to give a second thought about staying out late. For example my brother like to run in the afternoons. He doesn’t have time until later in the evening so he will go running around campus between 10 -11 pm for an hour. My parents just tell him to keep his cell phone with him. On rare occasions when I stay late in my lab,  I was advised to call the university walking escort service,the campus police, to take me back to my room.