Throughout all my life up to my freshman year here at Virginia Tech, I really have been part of many collective groups. However, two in particular really stand out in my mind because they placed a double bind on me. As a freshman in high school in Richmond, Va, I began to play football. I really loved the game, dispite how hard practice was. I also played baseball for my high school team because I had been playing all my life and loved the game. I continued to play on both teams for all four years at high school.
I also loved to snowboard. It was a passion of mine which I would never was to separate. I used to skateboard back when I was younger and now was really taking off in snowboarding. However my coaches hated it. They thought the risk of injury was too high for the team. They didn't want me to ride, and it often caused me to have to wait till the end of the season to start the snowboarding season in the middle of the winter.
My friends who also rode often got mad that I couldn't go up because I had football practice. They would have to wait a good month into their season for me to make my first trip. I would also have to quit my short season earlier in order to train for baseball.
This double bind has hanted me all of my life, but I really feel like I belong to both subcultures and collectives.