The diploma she will hand you is not an ancient map leading to a treasure that will set you up for life. There is magic in this world all right, but this ceremony is not it. This ceremony is a SONG, a dance, a celebration of the idea of transformation. This ceremony is a gathering of the Alchemists Guild, of all those who believe that lead, that anything for that matter, can be turned into gold - that sow's ears can be turned into silk purses, that plastic bottles can be turned into polar fleece, that ideas can be turned into money, that knowledge can become power, that inspiration can become art, that energy, despite what the scientists say, can become matter, and that girls of promise can become women of distinction. We can celebrate transformation today, but we can't see it.
Real transformation is a private event.
It isn't the marriage ceremony itself that ties the knot between two people. And neither is it the divorce decree that unties that knot. It isn't the goofy blue fairy who turns Pinocchio into a real boy, or the Dopey Fairy Godmother who turns Cinderella into a Princess. The ceremonies are conducted, and the fairies appear simply to acknowledge publicly that something, or someone has changed - that something previously unseen, can now be seen, that something invisible has now become visible. That the private has become public.