During Rumspringa many Amish people fully experience
what “us” English people have already been doing for year. However, from
watching The Devil’s Playground it is
evident that they take these temporary freedoms to the max and even abuse them.
I can honestly say that I’ve never been to a party with over 1,500 people, wake
up in a car, and do it all over again. And I can also add that I’ve never done
drugs. So to why the Amish young adults during Rumspringa take part in all
these wild activities is beyond me. One can only think that they party day in
and day out because they have been robbed of the casual freedoms that I have
had for as long as I can remember. So even though during Rumspringa they get to
“experience” all the rites of passages the English people get to, the majority
of them decide to return to the Amish life because they realize that there are
virtually no problems in the Amish life. They don’t have to worry about money,
time, cars, and jobs, basically everything we have to worry about. Also, the
consequences of not returning to the Amish life are steep; you can be
excommunicated and never talked to again, like the lady Velda in the video.
Starting a new life, without family and friends is quite a scary thought for
many people so in fear the young adults in Rumspringa eventually return.
Frank
Since you said that they abuse the freedoms that they attain during Rumspringa, do you think that they'd make a different choice after it all if they had access to these freedoms their whole life? I feel like some of the reason they go so overboard with it is just because they'd never had it before. And then with the excess, they decide the church is a better option.
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