Sam and His Skirt

In our generation you want to look and act perfect, you try to be someone that you are not just because you know society will judge you. When in reality you should not be the one who adapts to society, it is society who needs to adapt to you. In Stuart McLean’s Sam the Athlete, Sam tries out for a field hockey team, but when he realizes that he is the only boy there, that makes him believe that it is an all-girls team. The whole team is given a uniform that includes a skirt; Sam goes home after practice, shaves his legs and puts on the skirt.  This will create conflict if anyone knew he was a boy because in society it is “incorrect” for a boy to dress as a girl. In Sam’s mind, “the skirt was making him so happy-or, more to the point, he was happy when he was wearing his skirt”. If this is how Sam feels in the skirt no one should tell him he shouldn’t wear it. Even after the team finds out he is a boy there is nothing wrong with him still wearing his skirt. It is his life and he should live it without being judged. In retrospect he should have told the coach he was a boy from the beginning and things would not have been so messy, but the skirt helped Sam find himself and he made the right decision.  Although Sam made some not so smart decisions, in the end he made the most difficult decision of all, he decided to be himself.