<p>
</p>
<p>But this is really the first big event that a kid has. If you’re not from a religious background and you haven’t had a first communion or a bar/bat mitzvah or some other rite of passage, then there hasn’t ever really been a rite of passage celebration for you.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s a big rite of passage. You end your life at home with your nuclear family, you go off to college, then before you know it, you’ve got a 401K and a salary. It’s expected, but most rites of passage are expected. (My husband and I were together seven years before we got married… if anybody at our wedding didn’t expect our marriage from half a decade away, then they weren’t paying attention!)</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be an <em>expensive</em> deal, but it’s a <em>special</em> deal, and one worthy of special recognition.</p>