Lucas Soard- Assignment 6: Create your Own Adventure,

Prompt 1: It’s a great time to be a sports fan. Do you pay attention to pro or collegiate athletics? Why are people so obsessed with sports? What is it about sports that makes them so appealing?

Prompt 2: Being an athlete, I see physically talented people every day. But more often than not the talent they possess is wasted by their own laziness or arrogance. Why do so many talented people, not just athletes, fall prey to their own abilities?

Prompt 3: Malcom Gladwell, in What the Dog Saw, attempted to classify people into 2 groups, prodigies and late bloomers. If you had to categorize yourself into one of these groups, where do you think you would fall? Can all people fit into these two groups or are their other types of people, possibly those who never reach their potential?

I’m going to analyze Prompt 1 because it’s something I think about constantly. I play two sports, and I watch athletics most every day. It’s something that consumes my free time, and also something I enjoy immensely. Starting Friday night with high school games until Monday Night Pro Football, my weekends are dominated by sports. But there are people who take this to a whole new level. It’s not uncommon for football fans from Alabama or Mississippi to follow their favorite teams around the country throughout the entire season. A coal miner in eastern Kentucky gets one week's vacation per year, and has used all of it to attend the Southeastern Conference tournament in basketball for the past 20 years, just to watch UK. Why do people spend this much time and especially money to do this?

I think it starts with a person’s culture. In the example of football fans in the south or a basketball fan in Eastern Kentucky, sports are often what people grew up on. Most people can remember their first baseball game, or playing catch at school or with their father. Sports can cause a nostalgic feeling that other activities just can’t. People often realize early that pro sports just aren’t an option for us. We see the star wide receiver or pitcher and idolize them because we know that what they are doing with their body on that field is something we know that we could never do. It is physically impossible for me to run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds, and yet the guy in the locker next to mine could walk outside and do it on the street. There are likely thousands of other reasons why we love sports, but these have just been on my mind.