Community posts

Three Communities I belong to

1.       The Swim team

2.       My church

3.       The National Junior Honor Society

      The Community I chose to depict was the Swim Team. We practice in Whitney Young in the Athletic Building, on the first floor, across the hall from the classrooms. When entering the locker room you would see two separate areas. To the left of there are two long benches straight down the middle of the room. Along the left side of the wall, and straight ahead (on the back wall) there are many thin white lockers with towels and swimsuits hanging on the outside of them in order to dry. When walking farther into the locker room you would see a restroom area containing to stalls and one sink with a mirror above it. Closer to the entrance is another little room to the right of the main area is a shower area and one more bathroom stall. To the right of the shower area there is a little hall leading to a stainless steel door where the pool is located. In the locker room the walls are white, the floor is a red brown tile, and bathroom stall doors are a deep red. On the pool deck the same tile in the locker room continues throughout the area. There is a small shallow pool called the “cool down” pool which is used after races at the far left end of the pool deck. A bulkhead separates the cool down pool from the main pool.  At the far right end you will see many brightly colored orange bags containing all each members swim gear. Above the swim gear hanging on the wall are all of the swimming and water polo plaques that the school has won. Separating the boys and girls locker rooms are three or so offices with glass walls which belong to the athletic coaches. On either end of the wall where the locker rooms and offices are, are stairs leading up to the stands. On the wall across from the locker rooms holds the score/record board.

      The expectations for this community are simple. In order to put in your fair share you must come to practice every day on time, try your hardest, be supportive, and communicate with the coaches. In order for me personally to be a member of this community I must make sure that my grades are up to par with what my parents would like them to be. For others to be on the team they must abide to the rules previously stated.  The expectations, however, are greater for the varsity members then for the junior varsity members. They are required to go to an extra practice each week, and in general I believe they are held to a higher standard because they are usually considered the veterans of the sport. My individual role in this community is to do my best in the races I compete in. This may mean pulling my weight by swimming an event I don’t like to such as the 100 butterfly, or anchoring in the team relay to ensure that we have the likeliest chances of winning.

       This community feels comfortable to me because the team is like one big family partially due to us spending so much time together. Team bonding is also very important to us which makes us even closer.  Being together so often would be a problem if there wasn’t such a great group of girls, everyone is so nice, and the one common interest that has brought us together allowed us to share other things that we have in common with each other. Some of the people I have met with swimming would have never existed in my life without the team. The swim team is my community because I feel like I belong there, we share our swimming problems and swimming triumphs, things that not anyone but a swimmer could understand.