Ride of Passage is a short animation film about a young boy who must undergo his tribe’s rites of passage in order to receive honor and respect. The older men of his tribe expect Toki and the other boys to return with the biggest and most impressive head of an animal. The part of society that seems to have some vested interest in the immediate future of a soon-to-be university graduate would act similarly. Let’s send these twenty-somethings off into the wild world of job interviews and networking events, and whoever comes back with a real world job (pulling levers at a coffee shop doesn’t count) wins honor and respect. May the odds be ever in your favour. The older generation claims landing a job early in the game is the key to a future of success and happiness. Not to say that they’re wrong, but we’re competing with twice as many graduates than they did back in their day. How is that fair? I say, blame it on a generation of parents with higher expectations for post-secondary education.
After graduation, some of us are lucky enough to secure a job in our field; but of those unlucky few, most seem to lack the right amount of experience while the rest are too preoccupied passing out in hostels across Europe. In the beginning of the animation, Toki struggles, as he is barely able to capture a rather bored-looking frog. After chasing down a monkey that had just stolen the frog from his head, Toki encounters an enormous chameleon. Recognizing the responsibilities of the young boy, the chameleon helps Toki collect a bear, tiger, alligator, and elephant among many other animals. When the new graduate experiences the bottom-most pit of degradation, the light at the end of the tunnel reveals itself – so to speak – and soon enough, her résumé lands in the hands of an NGO desperate for any undergrad willing to work with $12 an hour. She makes the right moves, signs on the right dotted lines, and meets the right higher-ups.
Things are looking up until the chameleon steps into a snare set up by the older tribe members. Now, the young professional has to deal with those “more experienced” employees, who think they know what they’re doing when Arturo Escobar and Amartya Sen have already disproved their methods. She wonders what would happen if she went along, business as usual, with the demands of those in command. She shakes her head. Of course, she would go with their methods even if they were flawed, even if they were unsustainable, and even if they were a little bit racist because there’s still that other part of society that finally validates her now that she has a career. They must think she’s happy; so in a moment of haziness and distortion, she thinks she’s happy.
The young professional is too troubled by other people’s expectations of success and happiness that she fails to see what truly makes her happy. Most of us soon-to-be graduates will probably end up along this path because expectations have a way of caving in on our weaknesses. We should have listened when that guy on TED Talks said the key to happiness was low expectations; but more importantly, we should be acting more like Toki, the animated character who could barely hold on to the frog at one point in the story. Toki hears the approaching tribe members and in a moment of clarity, he imagines a beheaded chameleon as his crown and realizes this type of honor and respect would never make him happy. With great courage, he releases the chameleon from the trap and they ride off into the forest where there awaits a new life – one filled without irrational and cruel expectations but with self-fulfilling happiness and an unexpected friendship.
