Part I: Rituals and transitions I believe are important in life in the United States are growing up and establishing yourself in order to earn your place in the world. Obviously, there are many more, but these two sticks out to me because they fit most of the other important things, we consider under this umbrella category. For example, a part of establishing yourself is finding a significant other and having children or saving up to buy a house. I think these two are by far the most pushed by our culture because we value people who can make money and become successful, and the younger you are the more you’re praised. People also respect you depending on your job or the type of work that you do. I believe these two rituals and transitions are so important to Americans because they are a part of the American dream. Americans also value a strong work ethic while you are coming of age into your job. The workaholic mindset is encouraged even though later down the line this can cause unhappiness and ruined marriages. Finally, I think this entire problem is created by Americans placing too much value in material objects rather than their own happiness.

Part II: Rituals and transitions that I have gone through myself range from getting all A’s, to winning an event in swimming, to graduating high school. However, if I had to pick two that really stood out to me, I would say getting a job to help establish myself and deciding career-wise what I want to do with my life. These were and still continue to be stressful to me because my parents and our culture expect you to have everything figured out by now. Colleges might say they don’t, but you need to pay for each class and if you change your mind your debt will continue to rise. There is not a lot of wiggle room to mess around or discover. Furthermore, my parents are starting to ween me off of some of the bills they pay for or other extra expenses. I have to pay for my car, gas, books, and outings. This is also a part of growing up but tends to be extremely stressful for almost every college student. I work minimum wage jobs for long hours and hardly make a dent in the expenses I need to pay.  Additionally, my parents and the culture we live in encourages a workaholic type mindset because it’s what you’re supposed to do when you grow up. I am grateful however, for the learning curve because it has taught me to be more responsible, value my money more, and plan and manage my time better. Although, again I am always stressed about money or the pressure of deciding exactly what I want to do. So, I was more stressed at first about these aspects of my life, and even though I am still stressed, I have learned valuable life lessons from this.

Part III: College has been an interesting, bumpy road into adulting so far. I definitely had to experience a huge learning curve within the first month of being there. Not only was I not used to doing my own laundry, but I had to learn how to maintain a healthy schedule of work, social life, homework, and extracurriculars. At first college freaked me out because everything was your responsibility, which sounds sheltered I know, but then I got used to it and started having the best time of my life. I was able to manage the chaos and learn some important life lessons like how to manage your money, how to manage your time, and who to trust. However, a few things became extremely clear to me implicitly and explicitly as the year went on. For example, women should understand and avoid doing certain things to avoid getting sexually assaulted, rather than focusing on men and stopping them. This was shown implicitly from the amount of safety buttons MSU had on campus and the security you could get to walk you back from the library. Before I even got to college my parents gave me mace and my roommate got me an alarm. Now, I know these resources can be used for many things, but everyone always said just in case when they mentioned any of them. Without anyone saying the words you knew what they were talking about. This was shown explicitly when my guy friends would scold me at night for walking or riding my bike by myself, or when other women would talk about a girl that got assaulted and say “Oh she should have known better than to do that” as if it was their fault. Furthermore, a more minor message I noticed was if a girl dances with a lot of guys at a party she’s a slut, but if a guy does with a lot of girls he’s congratulated.