This is the rupture. The question that refuses closure. I invite the reader to consider: Is it the person, or the performance? The learning, or the credential? The transformation, or the transaction? The ceremony of Graduating is a ritualised declaration of transition. Its purpose—at least in conventional terms—is to mark the end of formal study and the beginning of recognised status. But that’s just the surface.
The Institutional Purpose Graduation is a public signal. It says: this person has met the criteria. It validates the system, not just the individual. The scroll, the cap, the gown—they’re props in a performance of legitimacy. The institution applauds itself as much as the graduate.
The Social Purpose It gathers witnesses. Family, friends, peers—all invited to affirm the moment. It’s a communal pause, a shared breath before dispersal. For some, it’s the only time their labour is publicly acknowledged.
The Personal Purpose It offers closure. A line drawn under years of effort, confusion, growth. For some, it’s a moment of pride. For others, it’s hollow—a ceremony that fails to reflect the real journey.
Graduation is not the climax. It’s the interrogation. You ask: What is truly being recognised? And the answer, often, is not the learning, not the transformation, but the compliance, the ability to endure, to perform, to meet the metric. We begin with the architecture of ceremony — robes, scrolls, and Latin phrases. These are not neutral objects.
