Essay #1... Community Essay_ A place to belong (Original Draft)

As I walk into the gym everyday at 4:30, there they were, a group of middle-age women on the treadmills, chatting noisily about what was on Oprah last night. Their laughter radiates such great energy as I thought to myself how fun it would be to be a part of their community. There are so many communities that I want to join as I look around. They are everywhere. It can be those treadmill ladies at Bally’s or the kids in my high school’s choir. Honestly, it is nothing more than a fancy and upgrade version for the word group. It functions in the same fashion as any group would. Playing a part of our life, community provides a sense of involvement, comfort, and connections to others. Everyone belong to a community, intentionally or not. The existence of community protects the interaction among people, and allows them to fulfill their life's purposes.


Before the discussion about community, I would like to share a brief description of what I think community is. It is basically a group of people, with similar interests or goals. With the common goals in mind, these people come and work together to accomplish what they want. For example, the homeless women in Liebow’s 'Tell them who I am' share an interest of having a place to stay overnight. They didn’t necessarily work together to build the shelter but they came and therefore, creating a community.

A community’s qualities are defined through the qualities of its members. If the people in the community often tell lie, don’t expect the group to have sincerity. However, to label them all as “liars” wouldn’t be accurate either, because not all members share the community’s overall characteristics. The varsity football team is a community that often used as example for stupidity and shallowness but through personal experiences, I know that doesn’t mean all football players own those characters. Last year, I joined an after-school tutoring program. One of the kids that volunteered to tutor there was a varsity offensive tackle. Even with practice and games, Mike still takes a little time out of his busy schedule to do tutoring just because he likes Calculus. He always says: “Don’t judge the book by its cover and don’t judge me by the sport I play. Football isn’t what I’m all about, you know.” At the time, I just nodded my head and let the words fly right out the windows five seconds later, because I was skeptical.However as I join PSEC, I get to meet more people like CJ and Joshua, who are football players, and I realize Mike was right. Many of them are just as thoughtful, intelligent, and polite as one could possibly be. There are still traits that all football players share such as their physical condition. They are big men on campus after all. It is quiet easy to spot a football player among the sea of students as they look like whales among the clown fishes. Besides the muscles, some people do fit the labels that go along with football players but I believe it’s worthy to spend time on getting to know the person beyond the sport.

In every community, there are problems to fix and work to do. In the varsity football’s case, the lack of attention paid toward education is one of the biggest social problems right now. Even though football takes part in the process of passing on values and creating fine, young men for the future, the need for knowledge is still the top priority. Yet, many high school football players choose to push aside their books and papers, focusing on “football only”, hoping they would find a million-dollar contract with NFL and live a happily-ever-after life. Survey says: “WRONG”. People often forget how common injuries are in football. While the fatalities directly due to football are low, the minor injuries that can prevent players to be effective or from making the team are quiet usual. What will they do if the minor injury from last year’s game becomes long-term health condition? Where will they go if the college of their dream college doesn’t need a football player? These kids need a backup plan to fall back on. They need education to turn to when football doesn’t work out. Lack of education is a problem that existed in all high school football community. It might be twice as hard for a football player to focus on their school work as a result of long practice hour and early class leaves. However, if the players, their coach and teachers would cooperate with one another, this social problem would no longer exist. The coach, who plays fatherly figure to the players, could encourage them to pay more attention to school by letting the players have shorter practice session on the day before a test, and have a pep talk every now and then about the importance of education. The teachers should make education accessible for the players, especially when they have to leave class early, by having their office hour before school so the players could talk to their teachers about what they miss the day before. Last and most essential factor is the players themselves. They need to wake up and face the truth. They need to understand that there’s a great chance they might not make it to the NFL, no matter how good they play. They need to be more committed to education. After all, the safest route to success is education and with support from the teachers and the coach, the future of these young men is insured.

Human beings have the need for interaction and community allows that need to be satisfied. Even though Americans are becoming more and more individualistic, they still need the connection to their community in order to function properly. It might not be obvious to some but we all belong to one community or the other. The homeless women, from Liebow’s Tell them who I am, are part of the homeless community while the football players belong to the high school sport community. Without community, the football players wouldn’t be able to play because it requires more than one person to make the game possible. Without community, the homeless women wouldn’t be able to get help because there’s no reason to build a shelter for just one homeless person.Humans are co-existing and interdependent creatures. People use one another in the community to fulfill their life purposes. For example, the football player needs the coach to train him so he can earn the scholarship to go to college just as much as the coach needs his players to play well so he can have another coaching contract for the next season. The homeless women need the shelter so they have a place to stay for the night, just like the shelter and the workers there need the women so they can stay in operation. We give to take. With just one simple idea, the human race will continue to subsist for years and years to come.

After the definition, the characteristics and the social problems existed in community, it’s all coming down to this. People need community. People need community to grow, to survive, to fulfill their ambitions, and to achieve success. It lets people get involved and therefore, connect to another. After all, human beings are just like trees and in the storm, it’s always better to stand together as a forest.