Writing Prompt: Tell Us About a Rite of Passage That Felt Meaningful
I love a milestone, the kind that shapes and changes you, that pushes you in a new direction. So…rites of passage. (Remember that amazing column in The New York Times?) Tell us about the prom you went to (or skipped!), your epic graduation celebration and why it meant so much, the first time you traveled without a family member, that lease you signed all by yourself… It can be traditional or the very opposite — something that was a rite of passage in your town or felt like one just to you. Write a bit about it here and then keep it going in your notebook later on. Let’s go!
I was pretty excited when I got my new business cards with Editor-in-chief on them after 6 years at a small publishing house. But 5 years later, in 2011, I printed my own cards: just my name and contact info and the word Editor...wow! The freedom of freelancing. I still love it.
I signed my first lease by myself at 19; it was in Italian, which I was just starting to learn. It was 1993, so there was no internet to help me translate. The more I think about it, my initial rite of passage that landed me on that island was joining the military, which I’d never considered, since I didn’t know anything about it and had never met anyone who had been in. Leaving my sheltered little life in the Midwest to see the world, which I never would’ve had the opportunity to do otherwise, was a step I never thought I’d take.