Conclusion

As the semester comes to an end, and I think back to late August and the beginning of my Junior/Senior year I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot from this class. Approaching this concluding post was somewhat difficult for me, because as this class concludes my blog will continue. Naturally I went back and looked over my introduction post to help get ideas to use for my concluding post. Over the course of this blog I have learned a lot about myself and sports relating to gender. Coming into the class I was thinking, “Sport and Gender, that’s simple, guys play football, and girls don’t.” However, it’s not that simple a lot more factors come into effect when discussing sport and gender, like age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and homophobia.

When I think about what I will take away from this class, I think of all the issues that were discussed in class during the year like homophobia, title IX, the black culture, and the influx of Asian athletes in America. When I think about what I will take away from this class I think of the countless hours spent blogging, and how there was always so much knowledge on sports in the classroom at all times. It seems as if we were all learning at the same time, I can remember instances where a student would educate Dr. Spencer on a sports issue that she had no knowledge of. That’s what I liked most about this class, it was open and free and all students were encouraged to voice their opinions at all times.

When I originally began this blog I didn’t like that fact that I had to post entries at such a rapid pace. I just look at it as something that I had to do. I wanted to have a blog, but I wanted to be able to blog about anything and not just the topics from class. As the year went on and I began to post entries on my blog on a regular basis, it became routine. Freedom of Speech is so powerful in this world, and this is what I feel that my blog gives me. This blog gave me the freedom to write down or say anything I would like, and express my feelings in a way that I can go back and critique and criticize them as needed. I think the experiences from this class and this blog will help me express my thoughts in whatever I may endeavor for my future career. During the course of this class I have I learned a lot about issues in sports that could be very influential to my future. I now have thoughts and perspectives on masculinity, homophobia, title IX, and many other issues of sports that prior to taking this class I had no opinions about. With 2009 rapidly approaching i'm excited to be entering the next chapter of college and closing a successful one this past semester. I had fun and unfortunately this class must come to an end but, my thoughts, and I do mean "Just My Thoughts" will continue into 2009.