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Participants spend several sessions preparing for three days and nights in the wilderness.  This “solo vision fast” is a time for teens to experience life without the distractions of cell phones, friends, family, or be influenced by anything other than nature in the scenic expanses of Central Washington.

“For most young people being out in the wilderness can be a test within itself,” said ROP guide Lauren Marziliano. “In the wilderness they must face the time-old adolescent ‘demons’ of boredom and loneliness.  Part of being an initiated adult is learning how to deal with things in a mature way.”

Teens accepted into the program come from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and situations.  While some youth are from severely troubled families, others are looking for a fresh challenge as they enter into a new phase of life.  Marziliano and a ROP co-leader work with a small group prior to their solo nature experience and again when they return.  Time-honored rituals of confronting difficult situations, being introspective, and saying goodbye to negative behaviors encourage youth to be open to future possibilities.

“My solo place was up on a ridge where an eagle sat by me in a tree,” said 16-year old Narissa, a high school counselor for girls in Des Moines.  “I sang and wrote music.  Deer slept by me and I heard an owl.  Before ROP I was constantly kicked out of the house.  My mom and I did not get along and I didn’t have a lot of friends.  I got a lot of anger out during ROP.  Now I love being with my friends and am better about being the person I really am.”

The Rite of Passage, begun in King County in 2005, is patterned after youth programs at The School of Lost Borders in Big Pine, California which has been assisting teens for over 35 years. The program addresses adolescent empowerment, how to build life skills, and how youth become participants in their own lives and the communities around them.   While each teen has their own timeline and moments of self-discovery, facilitators notice the most growth at three different periods.
 
“The greatest breakthroughs typically come during the pre and post-group meetings and the moment they come back from solo,” said Marziliano. “During the days after the solo, we get a chance to hear the stories of the participants’ experience while alone in the wilderness.  This is always fun for each person to be the star of their own stories—but the best part is that we, as guides, get an opportunity to mirror back what was heard about who that person is.  This time is often even more empowering for the youth because they aren’t always able to see the gifts of their own experience until it is reflected back to them externally.”

Using their newly-discovered awareness to better themselves, help others, and make a difference in their communities is at the core of the Rite of Passage. Freedom plans on returning to high school.  “Rite of Passage pulled me out of doing things that would have landed me in jail or prison.  Those things seem pointless to me now.  After high school I want to be a boy’s dorm advisor and get into college.”

Narissa also wants to attend college and earn her Master’s degree.  “Since ROP I feel renewed, get things done, and like a completely different person” said Narissa.  “I’ve written songs, recorded them, collaborated, and doing what I always wanted to do.  I am so proud of myself.”

A Poem Written by Narissa, 16, before the Rite of Passage

Our Journey

We’re ready to release our adolescent years.
To finally be done with childish fears.
We’ll find our way through the Rite of Passage,
And hopefully be given our right message.
To be respected people who can speak our minds,
And not be worried about what other people may find;
Find out about the past, and mistakes that have been done.
But the truth is it doesn’t matter for we have already won.
While they stay in the past along with mistakes,
We will have grown and truly raised the stakes.
Life’s bar is truly set high,
And that’s how it is, no need to ask why.