Tia Sijer
Bleck
English 99/151
October 6th, 2008

Rough Draft Paragraph on Ideas Out of the Stories

The idea that I chose to use was that sports is used to identify with something

larger than one’s self. I believe that this idea pertains to other parts of our society other

than sports. There is an importance in this idea because people are always trying to find

something they can identify with. In a sense some are trying to find something that gives

meaning to their life. Sports are just one of many things that people identify with, dedicate

themselves to and become a part of. Some other things people use to identify with are things

like church, drugs and school. Although these are three completely different things, they can

be used in similar ways. Church is the obvious one. Through prayer people talk to god and

identify with him and their religion. When people go to church they learn and try and follow

the word of god. This enables them to identify with god who is definitely a force “larger

than one’s self.” The use of drugs is not as obvious when thinking about identifying with

something. When people use drugs they are escaping into a high. Continuing, repeated drug use

is a person’s way of getting or identifying with the high that they can only get by using

that particular drug. The drug then becomes a force that is larger than the user when the

user loses control over whether they use the drug or not. This makes them addicted and makes

the drug the controlling force that they use to identify with in their life. School is

another force people use to identify with that is larger than they are. This usually doesn’t

happen in high school because most kids don’t want to be there. College is a different story

because we pay to be here. Students identify with school by paying as good attention as

possible in their classes and attempting to relate the material to their own lives and

personal experiences. School is a “larger force” because what you do here can affect you for

the rest of your life. Depending on what classes you take and how well you do in them can

affect the career you end up working in, the salary you earn and the lifestyle you live.

School must be taken seriously. All in all people need a force that they are able to identify

with. People will not really be drawn to the force if it isn’t “larger than one’s self.”

Things like sports, church, drugs and school all have larger forces that are easy to identify

with and all have somewhat addictive attributes to them.