One of the rites of passage that apparently I am the only one who has recognized is what I call the dorm key ritual. When a parent takes his child to register in a college dorm, the person at the front desk hands the room key to the freshman student, not to the parent. The parent is paying for the room, but the student gets the key. Whether parents recognize this or not, this is one of the major rites of passage for about a third of the American population.