An Iron Community

Working out is a community. It is a community because fitness brings people together in a place where we can all share the same interests and goals. The group is held together by sharing the same need; becoming fit and healthy. We are supportive of each other and our goals and will help one another to reach those goals. The tensions that are working against this community are generalized statements that everyone who belongs to a gym and works out is conceited and arrogant. Though I can’t speak for everyone, I believe that most who belong to the gym is just trying to become better mostly for themselves. Most who attend the gym are self conscious of themselves but the support from the gym as well as they’re fitness build confidence which I see nothing wrong in that.

I am a part of the gym community. I have a gym membership and attend the gym almost daily. I am a part of this group because I am just like most everyone who works out; self conscious but working my way to better confidence in myself. I like being a part of the working out community because I am there to focus on myself and to better myself with support from the gym and the people who attend.

What's In Your Wallet?

If I had lost my wallet, I don’t think the person who found it would get a good idea of the type of person I am. First, on the outside of my large and bulky black wallet is a collage of pictures of the beautiful Marilyn Monroe. The finder would probably believe me to be the girly type, but that is not the case. I like Marilyn, but I am not like her. I am more of a tomboy in the sense that I listen to heavy metal and watch wrestling and ultimate fighting. Getting further into my wallet I think the finder would get even more of a wrong idea about who I am. I have loads of gift cards and club cards to many stores. I hate to shop, go figure. I have many indications that I like to shop but really, all of the gift cards were given to me, and the club cards I have just adopted over the years. I don’t even have a credit card! The only things in my wallet that could determine the type of person I am would be my library card, school ID card, and a business card to a tattoo parlor. I think the finder would be very surprised if I came to claim what was mine.

What we put into our wallets can construct assumptions and possibilities about what type of person we are. Not everything we put into our wallets tells a story about who we are, but can give a person an idea about the things we like, where we like to shop and eat, and the places that we regularly go. The things we like to do can indicate on a small level of just what type of person we are. Unfortunately people can make assumption about who we are with just the contents of our wallets when they may or may not be true. There could be some things in our wallets that were given to us by others, or were things that we used to like but don’t anymore and have just gotten lost within the many folds and pockets of our wallets. Without an actual context to explain some of the things we have in our wallets, a true interpretation of who we really are is incomplete.