The end has come

This will be the final blog for my Sport Management Class, Sport and Gender. However, I do believe that I just may continue blogging on general topics or stay connected to the blogging world by commenting on other topics, just to stay current and see other points of views on those topics.

This semester was the first time that I have ever blogged and before this point I never had any real interest in opening a blogger account. Blogging to me was just another way to waste time sitting and looking at a computer screen, or was another social network like facebook and myspace. However, I have found that blogging was an overall interesting and effective way to communicate my opinions and views on issues that were current and important that we discussed or covered in classes. Although my class was a very opinionated and outspoken class, I did find that there was alot that was left out in class that were revealed in others blogs, which made the subjects we covered that much more interesting.

Blogging for me was a way to see controversial issues such as women body builders and the Caster Semenya case in a different view. Instead of being one sided and bias towards the issue and only taking into account what the media portrays and how I have been conditioned to think, I was able to gather a better understanding of the issues by seeing/hearing my classmates points of view and or experiences and deciding for myself how these people that are in opposition of the societal norms are viewed and how they view themselves. This allowed me to open my eyes to the fact that everything is not black and white, but that there is an entire gray area that in some cases overshadows that black and the white area all together, and this area needs to be taken into consideration when I formulate my opinions about certain situations.

I have learned alot from this class not only in sports and gender, but in how to accept those who are on the curve of what is an acceptable social norm and what is not. Based on the debates in class and the blogging done outside of class I have also become a more verbal individual able to express my opinions respectively, clearly and with understanding of different views.

I really enjoyed this class and found it to be a valuable stepping stone for my future in working as a personal trainer in corporate fitness. I feel that I am more capable of understanding differences and seeing people for who they truly are and not for what they are capable of or their sexual orientation or how they disrupt and social norms.

Thanks Dr. Spencer :-)