From right, debutantes Destiny Lewis, Zoë Ihaza, Kennedy Haye and Taylor Carroll wait to be announced as the junior debutantes, including Saniya Allen, 12, exit the ball room during the 2016 Links Cotillion.<br />
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Rites of Passage define our lives. They signify the progress of time as well as our citizenship in a tribe, in a culture — in life itself.<br />
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Chicago commemorates these moments in ways that reflect its diversity, but through difference, we find commonality. We are all connected through these formal and informal ceremonies that remind us how much family, love and time shape us.