Blog #4 : Gee and the Art of Learning a New Identity

When I first walked to a softball field, I remember feeling the love for the sport right there and then. I was about 10 years old and I remember feeling so excited and looking forward for the day where I got to play like my dad. After a week of starting, I injured my arm and I wasn’t able to play. I remember that being the worst feeling ever, this was because I was leaving behind a sport I wanted to play. I didn’t play until I was an eighth grader in middle school. I remember the feeling of holding the glove, bat, and a ball for the first time in a long time. This was always the best feeling ever, it just felt right to hold it every time I got to wear it. This along with walking onto the field with metal cleats and with a uniform on, are feelings that I will never forget and that will always be there whenever I do all of those things again. This for me was “my non- dominant secondary discourse”, but it’s also linked to my primary since I developed the love of the sport because of a family tradition, and the love they also had for the sport.

Although I played the sport with love and passion, I had to “mushfake” a lot of it. As I played in more teams and watched more games, I’ve noticed that you had to be loud and rough to be able to play against better teams. I’ve always been shy and being rough wasn’t my strong suit, but when it came to playing, I was loud and rough when I had to be. Although I was “mushfaking”, it later became something that stuck to me ever since I started. Now, I’m able to communicate better, and be strong/ rough in places where I have to be. Although you might start mushfaking, whatever you are doing it for, may become part of you forever or sometimes you might learn from it.

Despite mushfaking, I believe that I also learned to be a little more outgoing and social through “apprenticeships”. These according to an article, is “a proper environment and essential to practice and enter a social group.” (kleung1, 2015) This I consider an apprenticeship because when I was young, my dad introduced us to many people in the sport, and he was also very social and he made it look so natural and easy. He showed not only his passion for the sport through socializing with people with the same interests, but he also made some friends along the way. Although I learned most of it through my dad, I saw it all throughout my dad’s side of the family, all having connections and knowing people that played the same sport and they still keep in touch today. This is why I also made beautiful friendships when I was playing the sport I loved to play.

Overall, people can learn a lot from either primary or secondary discourses, they can turn out to be things you incorporate in your day to day life or things you can learn from. For me it has only been one memorable learning experience but there can be so much more in other people’s lives.

References

kleung1. (2015, December 4). Dissecting Discourses. Retrieved from https://medium.com/literacy-discourse/dissecting-discourses-9ef815bc6277

Gee, J. P. (2014). Literacy and Education. doi: 10.4324/9781315739571