Month: September 2016

Sam With The Skirt
In the world of sports you are surrounded by baseballs, soccer balls, footballs, tennis balls, hockey pucks and sticks. For young Sam these have all been obstacles but he never thought a skirt would be the biggest one of all. In Stuart McLeans short story “Sam the Athlete”, a young boy named Sam is conflicted between playing a game he loves and wearing a skirt. Sam eventually makes the choice to wear it which upsets many people, but when it comes down to it Sam is thirteen years old and is very capable of making his own decisions. If he wants to wear a skirt then he should wear a skirt. Although Sam shouldn’t be patronized for wearing the skirt, he should of told the truth in the first place. It would of saved a lot of time and he may not of felt as embarrassed or self conscious. Further more just because he’s in the 7th grade doesn’t make him unfit for decision making. Many 13 year olds have done remarkable things. For instance Mexico city’s Dafne Almazan has become the worlds youngest physiologist at the age of 13. If a 13 year old girl can graduate Monterrey Institute of Technology, why can’t a boy decide whether or not he wants to wear a skirt? In addition according to 2011 findings from the Williams Institute, 700,000 people identify as transgender in the U.S, and the number consistently keeps rising. If Sam liked wearing the skirt not only because of field hockey, there would be nothing wrong with that. Just like his father Dave told him, “[his wife and him] are okay with it”, so he would of had unconditional acceptance. Furthermore Sam is a bright boy who only wanted to fit it. He may have not of gone about it in the right way but his intentions were harmless. Sam has a right to his own decisions and should be trusted to make them himself. As Oprah once said, “don’t get confused between what people think you are and who you know you are”.