It has been said, "Any new venture goes through the following stages: enthusiasm, complication, disillusionment, search for the guilty, punishment of the innocent, and decoration of those who did nothing." Stages are simply the acknowledgement of certain points of passage that one experiences on his or her journey. Understanding these passages, whether they relate to learning, aging, or grieving, brings us a sense of perspective and provides us insight into how we react while in the midst of them.