Brittany Douglas-Image & Pilgrimage #1

“Liminlity and Transferring”

While reading about liminality in the introduction of Image & Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, I couldn’t help but be extremely vain and think of myself. On page two, Turner discusses Arnold van Gennep’s three stages of rites de passage, the second of which is liminality. It is described as follows: “he passes through a realm or dimension that has few or none of the attributes of the past or coming state, he is betwixt and between all familiar lines of classification.” Now I am not a male, nor am I in a state preceding manhood, but I am in a state of transition. This phase was at its peak towards the beginning of last semester. To give you a little background, I was a student at James Madison University last year, the school many students dream of attending. However, towards the end of July, I decided I wanted some tranquility in my life and made the decision to transfer. By some miracle, I was accepted for the fall semester. I arrived here alone. At JMU, I never had to make new friends. Here, it was a different story. I was on my own. My search for tranquility led to voluntary isolation, which alienated me even further. In the words of Turner, I was “betwixt and between all lines of classification.” I didn’t know how to identify myself. I didn’t know what to represent. I was in my own little bubble: outside the party scene of JMU and still outside the CNU community. It was challenging to say the least. However, I am now quite settled and love it here. I feel I have entered Van Gennep’s third phase: “aggregation” where “the subject returns to classified secular or mundane social life.”