Jamie Purdy
September 22, 2016
English 10

Why Sam Should be Able to Wear Whatever He Wants.

Have you ever seen a boy wearing a skirt or with shaved legs? This short story is called “Sam the Athlete” by Stuart McLean. This story is about a boy who is trying to find a sport that he is good at and one he enjoys to play. Sam is a young boy starting middle school. He is very nervous about fitting in. When Sam makes the field hockey team he is ecstatic but finds out that there is a little problem, it is a girls’ team. Sam has to make a decision, should he continue playing on the team and pretend to be a girl and have to wear a skirt, or should he wear shorts like all the other boys. Sam should be able to wear whatever he wants and be happy with it. Sam has been trying to find a sport he enjoyed and, “This… was the sport he had been looking for his whole life” (64). Sam really enjoys playing field hockey and he really loves playing with his teammates, and Sam didn’t care no matter what people say. Sam liked wearing the skirt, “I have been dressing up like a girl” People asked him if he liked it, “Like it? I love it,” (69). In life doing what you love and being who you want to be is all that matters. Why change your happiness when you have just found it? Sam did not care about the skirt and he was just being himself, nobody should tell you how to be yourself. Sam should be able to wear whatever he wants and be happy, and he should be proud of himself no matter what people think.